Health Secretary Humza creating nursing problems for First Minister Yousaf

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today accused former Health Secretary Humza Yousaf of creating big problems for current First Minister Humza Yousaf as he revealed the Scottish Government has missed its target for recruiting nurses and midwives by 10% this year.

In response to a parliamentary question filed by Mr Cole-Hamilton, the Scottish Government revealed that against an intake target of 4,837 fully funded places on nursing and midwifery programmes for the academic year 2022-23, 4,368 students have been enrolled.

The latest data released by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) shows that on 31 December 2022 there were 5,779 nursing and midwifery vacancies across NHS Scotland.

Commenting on the figures, Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

“We are never going to tackle long waits for treatment if the government fails to train and recruit enough staff.

“In failing to fill training places, it looks like former Health Secretary Humza Yousaf was storing up big problems for current First Minister Humza Yousaf to deal with.

“NHS recovery has never been an immediate priority for him. There is little to suggest that he will do any better as First Minister.

“Scottish Liberal Democrats would make nursing an attractive profession once again by delivering a burnout prevention strategy to aid staff retention and finally deliver the proper implementation of the safe staffing legislation that Parliament agreed years ago. More importantly we would work to rebuild the shattered trust between the service and the government that years of failure by ministers like Humza Yousaf has wrought.”