The nursing organisation, RCN Scotland is urging the government to set out clearer investment in fair pay and addressing the nursing workforce crisis when it brings it draft budget to parliament today. The call comes following a meeting yesterday with Health Secretary Humza Yousaf to discuss safe staffing.

As the Scottish parliament prepares to hold its first debate on the Scottish government’s draft budget, RCN Scotland has issued a call for urgent action to increase investment in the nursing workforce crisis across Scotland’s health and care services.

RCN Scotland has said the Scottish government must prioritise investment in tackling the workforce crisis after they laid bare the experiences of RCN members working amidst rising NHS and social care pressures during their meeting with Mr Yousaf.

The union is calling on the Scottish government to prioritise investment in tackling the nursing workforce crisis across Scotland’s health and care services.

RCN Scotland Board Chair, Julie Lamberth, said:

“Yesterday RCN Scotland Board members clearly told the Cabinet Secretary that enough is enough.

“While our current dispute with the Scottish government is about NHS pay, it is the unsafe working conditions, staff shortages and unrelenting demands that have brought members to vote for strike action.”

From the 2023/24 budget, the union has shared that it is looking to see clear investment in implementing fair pay for nursing staff across health and social care which acknowledges and addresses the workforce crisis in a sustainable way.

Previously, RCN Scotland has called the government’s initial pay offer “deeply insulting”, detailing that it had failed to listen NHS staff and the offer did not address the underlying workforce crisis.

Alongside the Royal College of Midwives, the RCN also rejected the latest pay offer, again highlighting that staff and patients are suffering due to years of being “undervalued and understaffed”.

The other points RCN Scotland also wants money in the budget to fund are a Nursing Retention Strategy, growing the domestic nursing workforce and a focusing on improving community health and social care services rather than structural reform.

The organisation says it used its meeting with Mr Yousaf to emphasise the impact of “dangerously low” staffing levels and the increased risk to patient and staff wellbeing.

Ms Lamberth added:

“The nursing workforce crisis is at the heart of the problems facing Scotland’s health and social care services. The people of Scotland deserve a health and care system that meets their needs and our health and care workforce deserve the resources and investment to be able to meet those needs.”

Board members highlighted the impact of dangerously low staffing levels, and the increased risk to patients and staff wellbeing, and called on the Cabinet Secretary to lead a dedicated programme of work to address the nursing workforce crisis.

In a pre-recorded message to Scotland’s Policy Conference on the workforce crisis last September, Mr Yousaf said “work is well underway to provide a healthy labour supply”. This was widely refuted during the course of the conference, with many recommending government review the workforce model, including RCN Scotland’s Director, Colin Poolman.

Mr Poolman, again addresses the action – and inaction – to successfully overcome the problems facing the NHS in Scotland. He said:

“Action to date to tackle severe nursing shortages has not worked and increasing nursing vacancies, across the NHS and social care, underline just how much pressure is on nursing staff. We are calling on the Cabinet Secretary to take the lead on addressing the nursing workforce crisis in a sustainable way.

“A good starting point would be using the budget as an opportunity to support and retain our existing nursing staff and to set out how we can grow and develop our nursing workforce of the future.” 

Read more: ‘Resounding’ rejection of pay offer; RCN: Staff need to see light at the end of the tunnel; Mr Yousaf: “Scotland is a great place to work”; Emails show haste to publish recovery plan

Sign up to our bulletin for key health & social care updates straight to your inbox and you can follow healthandcare.scot on Google News.