RHODA GRANT: Staffing crisis hits many NHS fields leading to burnout
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This month I visited the new National Treatment Centre in Inverness. The new building is bright, spacious, and very modern, compared to our ageing Raigmore Hospital.
The NHS is in crisis and NHS Highland has the added pressures of covering a rural area, with a sparce and ageing population. The challenges also impact on recruitment and retention of staff.
Only last week I read that, out of the 11,000 staff in NHS Highland, fewer than 400 are under the age of twenty-four. An older workforce means that we will need to increase recruitment in the future and this is already proving challenging especially in our rural areas.
NHS Highland need to find new ways to attract and support young people into the workforce. This means making these placements attractive as well as finding recruits somewhere to live. Encouraging people to stay in work past retirement age is also worthwhile but cannot guarantee a workforce into the future.
I am very aware that stress on workers means many are burnt out, which means they are more likely to leave the service early, rather than stay beyond retirement age. Therefore time needs to be taken to support all workers in order to recruit and retain staff.
The same goes with our care home provision. This month it was announced that Castle Gardens in Invergordon would close. That is the second care home in two months – and sadly, I suspect more will close in the coming months.
The sector warn of staffing issues and their dependence on agency staff which are very expensive. I am assured that Highland Council and NHS Highland are addressing this strategically, which is welcome, but I will continue to press for a well thought out action plan.
I believe this has to address care staff pay. It seems ludicrous to me that expensive agency staff are deployed, when a more attractive pay scale would help recruit full-time permanent staff.
Lastly, access to NHS dentists is a chronic issue throughout Scotland, but particularly the Highlands. I have raised this issue many times with both the NHS board and in Parliament as people continue to contact my office raising their personal concerns and their inability to register with a dentist or even to be seen by the dentist they are registered with.
My Scottish Labour colleagues have also been raising the issue in Chamber, particularly at First Minister’s Questions.
I am concerned that those who are not assessed as needing ‘urgent’ care will be left and their oral health to deteriorate further, causing knock-on health issues. I am hopeful that NHS Highland will continue to recruit and retain Dentists and take steps to ensure that patients are adequately assessed and prioritised.
This issue has been apparent before the pandemic and the Scottish Government should have, and could have, taken action. We need the Scottish Government to stop their plans for privatising the sector by the back door and to take action now.
