Addressing Scotland’s Medical and Nursing Workforce Crisis

That the Parliament recognises the scale of the crisis in Scotland’s NHS, with almost one in six people in Scotland on NHS waiting lists for tests or treatment, and private hospital admissions in Scotland reaching record levels in 2024, all while patients struggle to access a GP appointment; is concerned, therefore, regarding reports that resident doctors are unable to secure speciality training places in Scotland’s NHS, while newly qualified nurses cannot get jobs despite over 2,600 unfilled whole-time equivalent nursing and midwifery vacancies; regrets that inadequate NHS workforce planning by the Scottish National Party administration is forcing highly skilled clinicians to seek employment elsewhere, and calls on the Scottish Government to expedite its reported Future Medical Workforce project, and to report back to the Parliament by 1 September 2025, and undertake a wider review of workforce planning, with independent modelling and projections, and to report back by 1 December 2025, so that there is the required level of workforce to staff Scotland’s NHS.