Health services in many parts of the world are over-stretched due to workforce shortages, rising demand for services and difficulties in retaining staff. In Scotland, many consultant posts are unfilled, staff are reporting increasing levels of burnout, and there is a huge backlog of patients waiting for treatment.
There is an urgent need to address our workforce challenges, and to take time to better understand the reasons why so many healthcare workers choose to leave the profession.
Key areas we believe need to be addressed are:
Increasing the supply of medical professionals with additional medical school places
Increasing the number of places available through the medical training initiative
An ethical approach to international recruitment
Improving support and guidance for international medical graduates
Ensuring work plans and contracts provide sufficient time for consultants to deliver training and supervision
Ensuring trainees have adequate time and support to complete training
Developing a workforce strategy that delivers a plan that is realistic and achievable
An innovative and collaborative approach to transformation of services including integration of health and social care
Addressing the crisis in social care to enable patients to more easily move from hospital to the care service
Developing the roles of and training capacity for enhanced roles including nurse practitioners, medical associate practitioners and surgical care practitioners
Key priority areas
Latest Workforce news and statements
Key links
Tweets by @rcpsglasgow