Workforce
Planning Inquiry Comes to Inverclyde
Senior
members of the Scottish Parliament’s Health Committee are to visit Inverclyde
as part of their major inquiry into Workforce Planning in the NHS.
Committee
Convener, Christine Grahame (SNP); Conservative Health Spokesman, David
Davidson; and Liberal Democrat Health Spokesman, Mike Rumbles, will discuss
staffing pressures and the centralisation of services with staff at Inverclyde
Royal Hospital on Tuesday 25th May.
They will then host a public consultation event in Greenock that
evening.
To
give members of the Committee a wider and more rounded view of how the issue is
impacting on services across Scotland, all are visiting areas outwith those they
represent. MSP for Greenock and
Inverclyde, Duncan McNeil, also a member of the Committee, is therefore
travelling to the Borders.
Speaking
ahead of the visit, Mr McNeil said:
“I
am glad that this inquiry has now finally begun in earnest and that the
situation in Inverclyde is to be specifically examined – we have certainly
felt the effects of NHS workforce planning and staffing difficulties.
“But
it is not a problem which is unique to Inverclyde and, for my own part, I am
looking forward to seeing how the forces against which we have been struggling
in Argyll and Clyde are affecting service delivery and public confidence in
another part of Scotland.”
ENDS
Notes
In
its work programme, published on 12th
November 2003, the Health Committee says it will conduct an inquiry, the
remit of which 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 would:
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.
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