Are retired medics really needed now that hospital admissions are falling from a peak last month of only half of the real peak in February 2021?
Prof (not really) Taylor, well-spoken shop steward for the Glasgow Branch of the surgeons’ trade union, the RCPS, is a regular presence in the MSM finding fault and standing up, only, for her members aspirations. She tells us:
RETIRED medics are an “untapped resource” who should be fast-tracked back to the frontline to relieve pressure on the NHS over winter, one of Scotland’s leading clinicians has said. Professor Jackie Taylor, the president of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Glasgow, said that too many recently retired doctors who had tried to return at the beginning of the pandemic had been put off because the process was “so complex” or because they were offered unsuitable posts – or no work at all.
Needless to say the Prof unlike real profs has no data to present, just anecdotes.
Might these anecdotes be an inaccurate representation of the situation? See this:
“Staffing levels reached a record high of over 150,000 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE) in March, a rise of almost 9,000 on the previous year.
“The increase of 25,000, under this government, underlines our ongoing determination to prioritise investment in the NHS.
“I am now determined that the remobilisation of the NHS will be among our top priorities.
“We will publish a national recovery plan for the NHS within the first 100 days of the new parliament.”
The figures show:
NHS Scotland’s staffing levels have increased by 6.2% (or 8,955.3 WTE) in the last year and by 2.5% (3,759.2 WTE) in the last quarter
since 2006, NHS Scotland’s staffing levels have increased by over 25,000 WTE (to 152,395.9 WTE at March 2021). NHS Scotland’s workforce numbers are at a record high at March 2021, including record high numbers of Medical & Dental Consultants, Qualified Nurses and Midwives and Allied Health Professionals
Medical & Dental Consultants (inc Director level consultants) have increased by 3.3% (to 5,788.7 WTE), qualified nurses and midwives (inc Interns) up 3.7% (to 46,259.8 WTE) and Allied Health Professionals up 2.4% (to 12,360.9) in the last year
NHS Scotland has higher staffing per head: 27.9 WTE staff per 1,000 people in Scotland (Mar 2021) while in England it is 20.9 WTE (Jan 2021)
https://www.gov.scot/news/nhs-staffing-reaches-record-high/
Is Taylor just another trade unionist whose views have to be noted as partisan, biased?
Talking-up Scotland 
The answer to your question is, ‘YES’.
Many of the surgeons who retired, retired early, partly because their occupational pensions were final salary schemes and sometimes because they had been given inducements to retire. Like many teachers, they took these early retirement offers with a view to being offered ‘supply’ work, which is pretty well-remunerated and has few of the responsibilities of permanent employees. In short, such work is a ‘holiday fund’.
The cynical, venal greed of some within the ‘professional’ classes – and I am part of the ‘professional’ classes – is breathtaking and nauseating.
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To your ultimate question, undoubtedly yes.
Yet let’s not let the redoubtable Helen McArdle off the hook here, she constructed this distortion knowingly…
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ON A DIFFERENT SECTOR OF NHS
MY DENTIST TELLS ME
DENTIST ARE LEAVING IN THEIR DROVES
DUE TO SCOT GOV TIGHTEN BELT
CAN YOU COMMENT ON THIS
SEEMS CONTRARY TO WAT HUMZA IS SAYING
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