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Plan to hire hundreds of overseas nurses to cope with winter demand

Some 1,000 new NHS staff to be hired by Scottish Government this winter including nurses recruited from overseas
Overseas nurses to Scotland

Some 1,000 new NHS staff to be hired by Scottish Government this winter including nurses recruited from overseas

The Scottish Government has announced it will recruit hundreds of international nurses as part of £600 million in funding to bolster the NHS this winter
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The Scottish Government has announced it will recruit hundreds of international nurses as part of £600 million in funding to bolster the NHS this winter.

Unveiling his winter plan, health secretary Humza Yousaf also said he would allocate £8 million from the current year’s budget to recruit 1,000 new NHS staff, including 750 nurses, midwives and allied health professionals from overseas.

Announcing the plans in Holyrood on 4 October, Mr Yousaf said the government was committed to easing pressures caused by the pandemic and said the well-being of health and social care staff was the government’s top priority.

‘The coming months will be a test for our health and social care systems and indeed the incredible workforce therein,’ he said. ‘Our winter plans set out the measures we will take to bolster the workforce, to reduce demand by treating people at home or as close to home as possible during this difficult period.’

The announcement comes as NHS England recently came under fire from workforce experts and unions for its over-reliance on international recruitment, with many warning it is not an effective long-term solution to staff vacancies.

Winter plan doesn’t tackle real issues of workforce shortages, says RCN

RCN Scotland director Colin Poolman said the health secretary’s winter plan did not tackle the real issues of the workforce shortages and urged members to vote for strike action as the College’s ballot on pay opens on Thursday.

From Thursday members of the RCN in Scotland will start receiving postal ballots for strike action over the government’s 5% pay offer. the ballot is open until 2 November.

Mr Poolman said: ‘We continue to hear the Scottish Government talk about record numbers of nursing staff in post, but the reality is that we’re short of over 6,000 nursing and midwifery staff in our NHS and six in ten RCN members are considering leaving their current role.

‘Government initiatives to tackle waiting times and support service recovery cannot succeed without first addressing the workforce crisis. We believe strike action should always be a last resort, but the current NHS staffing crisis is causing unacceptable risk to patients and staff. Failure to listen and act has left us no choice but to advocate for strike action.’


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