Press Release
18th November 2003

NHS Planning – McNeil Welcomes Health Committee Probe
MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde, Duncan McNeil, has welcomed the decision of the Parliament’s Health Committee to hold, for the first time ever, a full inquiry into how the recruitment, training and retention of NHS staff is affecting the delivery of health services.

Royal College guidelines, the sub-specialisation of clinicians, a lack of flexibility and the impact of external factors such as the agreement on junior doctors’ hours have all contributed to intense pressure to centralise NHS services across Scotland – the most recent example being the highly controversial maternity reviews in Argyll and Clyde, Glasgow, Falkirk, Stirling and Perth.

Speaking after the launch of the Committee’s work programme for the coming parliamentary session, Mr McNeil, who left his job as Chief Whip earlier this year to allow him to take up a place on the Health Committee, said:

“I am delighted that my Committee colleagues recognise the importance of this issue and have agreed to my request to make it the subject of a major, wide-ranging inquiry.

“Too much of the NHS is now stuck in a cycle of crisis management, continually applying short-term sticking plaster solutions to symptoms as they arise.  This is having an adverse affect on NHS planning across the country and is creating intolerable pressures to centralise services.

“We need to look beyond the symptom and treat the underlying cause.

“From my discussions with professionals, management, unions and others, I know that workforce planning – how staff are recruited, how they are trained, how they are retained – is playing a key role.

“Indeed, how clinicians are trained; the agreement on junior doctors’ hours; the Europe-wide shortage of paediatricians; the application of clinical standards and Royal College guidelines; and even such mundane matters as how shift patterns are drawn up all contributed to the short-sighted and illogical maternity review in Argyll and Clyde.

“So it is the job of this inquiry to examine these issues and consider how they can be effectively addressed.  Not, of course, an easy task.  But we cannot duck our responsibilities.  If this issue is not tackled soon, it could lead to irreparable damage in the NHS.”

In its newly published work programme, the Health Committee says the remit of the inquiry will be to “review workforce planning for all professions within the NHS in Scotland and how this is being developed to meet the needs and demands of patients.”

In other words, the inquiry will:

• Cover the roles and responsibilities for workforce planning;
• Identify pressures affecting the workforce and how they impact on service delivery e.g. Specialisation of staff skills and the European Working Time Directive;
• Examine what the Executive is doing to address those pressures identified;
• Identify areas with difficulties in recruitment and retention, and identify best practice;
• Examine what the Executive is doing to develop the workforce in areas identified as experiencing recruitment and retention difficulties;
• Examine what is being done to identify longer term influences on health service provision and demand, and how this relates to workforce development; and
• Identify barriers to training and education.

Patients and other service users are also set to have a major say in the inquiry and plans for a civic participation event are to be considered.
ENDS

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