Cole-Hamilton: NHS workers logged safe staffing concerns more than 18,000 times

Speaking during First Minister’s Questions, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader and health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today accused Humza Yousaf of leaving a legacy of staff shortages after research by his party revealed that NHS workers had logged concerns about being short staffed on more than 18,000 occasions in the past five years.  

Freedom of information requests submitted by Scottish Liberal Democrats, which were answered by 12 of the 14 Scottish health boards, have now revealed:  

• 18,603 reports relating to short staffing were logged in the past five financial years. 
• Dumfries and Galloway provided the figures for the past five calendar years, which took the total to 18,840.  
• 2021/22 saw the highest number of reports logged with at least 5,724.  
• 4,652 reports were logged in the first nine months of the 2022/23 financial year.  
• Lanarkshire, Lothian and Greater Glasgow & Clyde have all seen significant increases in the number of reports logged  

Speaking in Parliament, Mr Cole-Hamilton said:  

“Presiding Officer, we learned this week just how bad the NHS staffing crisis has become. I wonder if the First Minister realises just how angry he makes NHS workers when he blames that crisis on the pandemic. It was exploding long before anyone had heard of Covid-19. 

“Scottish Liberal Democrats are today publishing research which reveals that NHS workers have logged concerns about being short staffed on more than 18,000 occasions in the past five years.  

“These are the red flags recorded by staff on the health service’s official incident reporting system.  

“Those figures soared on the First Minister's watch, all told the alarm was sounded 10,000 times in the two years that he was Health Secretary.    

“It means patients waiting in pain, wards dangerously understaffed and NHS workers pushed to breaking point.  

“So, can I ask the First Minister, aren’t the royal colleges correct in their belief that, irrespective of the pandemic, neglect by Scottish ministers has left this health service in a terrible state?”