Ed Jacobs, Left Foot Forward, June 29, 2011 In a week which has seen DUP health minister Edwin Poots warn of thousands of job losses to come in the health service in Northern Ireland, and doctors making clear they prefer the way the NHS is working in Wales rather than England, with official figures in Scotland show that, between September 2010 and March this year, the number of nursing and midwifery staff in post fell by 1.2% (a cut of more than 700). The data, released by Scotland’s Information Services Division, reveals ... Scotland

Morning Star, October 12, 2010 The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) urged Scottish politicians today to ensure hospitals have enough staff to provide patients with "proper dignified care." The RCN called for action after a survey of members in Scotland found that more than half said they were unhappy with the level of care they gave. More than 500 members of the nursing organisation were questioned for the study, with 54 per cent answering No when asked: "Are you able to provide nursing care with dignity for patients to a standard you are happy with?" ... Nurses

Highland News, July 8, 2010 A union has expressed fears for patient care as 30 nursing posts are axed from cash-strapped NHS Highland. The move comes after latest figures reveal the health authority must save at least £14.7 million this financial year. It is anticipated there will be no compulsory redundancies and the posts will be lost through natural turnover of staff. NHS Highland also plans to shed another 70 jobs from administrative and support services. Nurses' union the Royal College of Nursing has launched an online campaign, Frontline First, to fight cuts which affect patient care. ... Worries

Pete Bevington, Shetland News, July 8, 2010 Scotland’s main nursing union has launched a national campaign to protect patients from massive cuts in the NHS budget. The Royal College of Nursing Scotland pointed out that NHS Shetland must save at least £1.4 million this year on its new campaign website www.rcn.org.uk/frontlinefirst, part of £250 million in cost cuts nation wide. The RCN wants nurses to come forward with suggestions about where savings can be made that will have a minimum impact on frontline services. ... Nurses

Lyndsay Moss, The Scotsman, July 7, 2010 The National Health Service in Scotland must make cuts of at least £250 million this year to break even, nursing leaders warned as they launched a campaign to protect front-line services. The Royal College of Nursing said health boards had revealed the true extent of savings that must be made might be even higher, after some indicated additional cuts may be necessary. The £250m is on top of the 2 per cent efficiency savings that the NHS has to achieve to re- invest in other services. The RCN pointed to the extent of the cuts as it launched a UK-wide campaign - Front-line First - to monitor the extent of any cuts ... Nursing

BBC, July 6, 2010 The Royal College of Nursing has launched a campaign to protect nurses from cuts in the NHS. RCN Scotland said health boards must make total savings of at least £250m next year to break even. The Scottish government has already announced that 1,500 nursing and midwifery posts will be lost across the 14 health boards in the coming year. Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said NHS funding had risen despite a £500m cut in the Scottish budget. ... Scottish

Marina Dimova, Visit Bulgaria, July 5, 2010 The Labour party asking the health service to use its communications budget for recruiting more nurses, argues it could by using the £3.9 million spent on over 120 press and media staff, hire 150 nurses. The sum was obtained through making Freedom of Information requests to health boards. Labour’s Jackie Baillie accusing the SNP of forcing the NHS to plan 4,000 job cuts, including 1,500 nurses, said she wanted the NHS to employ real not spin doctors, including nurses not press officers, adding the £4 million spent on press and communications, in a better use of the resources should go on the front line. ... Labour

As a highly critical report into the NHS is published, Political Correspondent Jamie Livingstone asks how the service will survive big budget cuts. Jamie Livingstone, stv.tv, June 28, 2010 The public spending outlook could scarcely be more bleak. Squeezing value for money out of every taxpayer pound has rarely been more important. But what about the NHS? A damning new report by Holyrood's Health Committee has cast serious doubt over efficiency levels within the service. It also questions whether it can take a scalpel to spending without seriously damaging patient care. ... Can

John Ferguson, Daily Record, May 19, 2009 Money-grabbing hospitals are fining their own nurses £40 for parking at work. Months after charges were supposed to have been scrapped, seven hospitals have brought in back-door charges. It means those parking for longer than four hours are hit by a fine - including nurses coming off 12-hour night shifts. About 50 staff finishing their gruelling shifts found penalty notices stuck to their car windows as they left the Southern General in Glasgow yesterday. ... Row

Helen Puttick, The Herald, June 27, 2007 NHS staff in Scotland are taking more time off work sick - despite targets to cut absenteeism. Health service phoneline NHS 24 has the highest illness rates, with the average worker off one day in 10 last year. This is against a rate for the entire workforce of one day off sick in 18 and a target of one day in 25. Mary Scanlon, Conservative health spokeswoman, said the data, released yesterday, was a matter of concern. When NHS 24 took on calls to GPs outside surgery hours at the end of 2004, it struggled to cope and patients had to wait hours for nurses to ring them back with advice. However, last year, it appeared to have turned the corner. ... Health

Channel 4 News, June 26, 2007 Health chiefs are spending more on temporary nursing staff, figures have revealed. Less is being spent on employing agency nurses, but that saving is more than offset by an increase on "bank" nursing staff, who are employed by the NHS. Figures from NHS Scotland show the number of agency non-fully qualified nursing staff used increased by 7.4%, while the amount of registered nursing and midwife staff hired fell by 43.5%. The overall amount spent decreased by £8 million, 30.5%, as health boards made far greater use of "bank" nurses. They are health service employees who can be called on, often at short notice, to cover both planned and unplanned absences. ... NHS

Billy Paterson, Glasgow Sunday Mail, May 20, 2007 Nurses are furious at being asked to work weekends to help £1000-a-day surgeons. They are being offered just £100 to support surgeons - who are getting three times their usual money to work - in a bid to cut hospital waiting lists. Nurses at Nine wells Hospital in Dundee are already boycotting the weekend rosters and consultants and unions are backing their battle for a fairer deal. Nursing staff across the country have been told to work Saturdays and Sundays at time-and-a-half rate - around £100 a day - while agency staff are paid more to cover days off. ... Nurse

Public sector watchdogs are warning health chiefs to monitor their use of temporary nurses.
Scotland Today, April 28, 2007
In its latest report, Audit Scotland highlights the growing use of bank nursing staff by NHS bosses as a way of coping with staff shortages. The practice increased by 75% over a four year period. The report warns the situation must be watched closely, to ensure that the quality of care is maintained. Barbara Hurst from Audit Scotland said: "For patients it clearly matters that there are enough nurses on the wards to look after them and they have the right skills and they're not having to train people who are new to the area. Patients can be reassured by a lot of what's going on in the health service at the moment  but there are some key areas

Wendy Miller, Evening Times, April 27, 2007 Scotland's 67,000 nurses and midwives will not receive a promised 2.5% pay rise this month. Health Minister Andy Kerr had promised the money would be in their end-of-April wage packets. But this is no longer possible due to delayed pay talks with other NHS staff. Now there are fears Scots health workers will punish Labour at next week's elections. SNP health spokeswoman Shona Robison said: "Andy Kerr trumpeted the pay deal in a pre-election U-turn but has not delivered it in the timescale he set out. Mr Kerr should have been upfront about the delay. His about-turn was welcome at the time, even though it was blatantly explained by the imminence of the Holyrood election. The least he could have done was deliver it before the election." ... Nurses

Wendy Miller, Glasgow Evening Times, April 23, 2007 Health bosses today promised to pay thousands of Glasgow nurses their overdue pay deals by the end of summer. Thousands of NHS workers across the city are still owed back pay of between £2000 and £3000 under the Agenda for Change programme, as the Evening Times reported last month. Many have been waiting two and a half years and they claim to have been promised the payments several times before by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. ... Nurses