Record cash for health and social care must get to front line, ministers told
The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh said there were ‘chronic workforce shortages’ that need to be addressed.
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Your support makes all the difference.Record funding for health and social care in Scotland must be used to deal with “chronic workforce shortages”, doctors have insisted.
The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh welcomed Finance Secretary Kate Forbes’ commitment to provide £18 billion for the sectors in the next financial year.
Delivering her Budget statement for 2022-23 to Holyrood she said the Scottish Government was “generating the revenues we need” to invest in both the NHS and a planned new National Care Service
The money for the health service will take the “first step” towards ensuring frontline spending increases by at least £2.5 billion by 2026-27.
The package also includes £1.2 billion for mental health, Ms Forbes said, in line with the government’s aim of having 10% of all frontline NHS spending going towards this key area by the end of this Parliament.
Meanwhile £200 million of cash going to local government will ensure that councils can pay adult social care staff the national minimum wage of £10.50 an hour, the Finance Secretary told MSPs.
Professor Andrew Elder, president of the College welcomed the funding, including £147.6 million for tackling the problems of alcohol and drugs misuse, saying this was a “slight increase on last year”.
But overall he stressed that “any additional funding must be used efficiently – and it must reach healthcare workers on the front line, who continue to deliver quality patient outcomes under increased clinical demand”.
Prof Elder said: “The College would urge the Scottish Government to use this record funding to invest in the medical workforce now, because as we highlighted in the recently published physician’s census, Scotland has too few doctors to meet clinical demand.
“Our chronic workforce shortages must now be addressed as part of a sustainable and deliverable long term plan for our NHS, taking account of changes such as the rise of part-time working, extended working, and the needs of an ageing population.”
He continued: “In the short term, funding must also go towards filling immediate rota gaps through innovative recruitment and retention programmes, and humane rota design, ensuring that there is enough medical equipment across all hospitals, and by providing good rest and refreshment facilities for medical staff, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“The inextricable links between health and social care must be supported and enhanced in an integrated way, and there is a real need to provide funding to support carer recruitment and training in the formal care sector, as well as support for informal and unpaid carers.”