stewartb

‘BBC Scotland is, undoubtedly, using a Scottish psychiatrist as part of its continuous attritional narrative, ‘that Scots are incapable of running things for themselves’.

I’m inclined to check out – for comparison and useful learning – how capable the British Labour Party, long in government in Cardiff, have proven itself to be in running NHS Wales. After all, we in Scotland need to know what might be ahead of us in 2026!

For example, Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) released its latest NHS Wales Workforce Trends Report (as at 31 March 2023) on July 25, 2024 – see https://heiw.nhs.wales/news/heiw-releases-latest-nhs-wales-workforce-trends-report/ . Here are some notable insights around the use and cost of agency and locum staff.

‘3.3. Agency & Locum Trends
‘Agency and locum staff are usually deployed when substantive and bank options have been exhausted.’

‘Since April 2018/19 the overall growth in agency and locum spend is 126%, increasing from £144 million to £325 million. Agency and locum spend has increased from the previous year, every year. The biggest percentage increase can be seen in 2021/22 (36% increase). Between 2021/22 and 2022/23 agency and locum spend increased by 20% from £271 million to £325 million.

‘3.4. Agency and Locum Spend by Staff Group
‘On the total agency and locum spend by staff group for 2018/19 and 2022/23: ‘The highest proportion of Agency and Locum spend
relates to the Nursing and Midwifery and Medical and Dental staff groups. Nursing and Midwifery accounts for the biggest locum and agency spend and has seen a significant increase from £65 million in 2018/19 to £156 million’ (in 2022/23).

How could such increases in agency and locum usage and costs occur to such an extent under a British Labour Party government? Perhaps to quote from the BBC Scotland report that prompted the main blog post: ‘the increased cost of the reliance on locums is stark and very concerning. I think the whole agency locum question is a reflection of a real crisis in the Welsh NHS workforce!’