The Scottish Conservatives have called on the Scottish Government to ‘Look after those who look after us’ during a Holyrood debate.
Scottish Conservative Spokesperson Miles Briggs has outlined a range of initiatives to improve the quality of the workplace for NHS Scotland staff.
The Tories, who are the biggest opposition party at Holyrood, want to help move towards a better holistic approach to the health and welling of NHS staff, with initiatives such as:
- Sleep pods and phone charging points in hospitals for NHS night shift staff to rest after long shifts
- Free parking for NHS staff – staff at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Glasgow Royal Infirmary and Ninewells Hospital in Dundee continue to face unacceptable parking charges to park at their work.
- Mental Health and Financial Advice Support (SALUS the NHS based provider of Occupational Health, Safety and Return to Work Services in Lanarkshire is a good example of this and we need to see this across NHS Scotland)
- Health checks at Community Pharmacies to help provide NHS staff with support services
- Wellbeing Wednesday’s (such as those that have been put in place by NHS Borders)
Miles Briggs, Scottish Conservative Lothian MSP, said: “Any organisation at its heart is its people – and the NHS is no different.
“People who work in our NHS are superheroes in many people’s eyes, but they are not superhuman.
“We need to understand the impact that the ongoing NHS workforce crisis, which sees high vacancy rates in nursing, consulting and mental health posts, as well as high absence rates across the health service is having on staff and staff morale.
“Retention of staff has to become the number one priority for our health services and that is why Scottish Conservatives have brought forward this important debate.
“Scottish Conservatives are calling on Ministers to review NHS and social care staff workplace support services in order to improve and promote wellbeing.
“It is time we changed the approach taken to the health and wellbeing of NHS staff in Scotland. It is time we looked after those who look after us.”
Cabinet Secretary, Jeane Freeman, said: “I am immensely proud of our health and social care staff.
“The quality of care and treatment and the compassion and dedication shown by our staff is unparalleled and we thank each and every one of them.
“Whatever their role they contribute directly to our nations health and well being and to our society.
“Of course I recognise the pressure there is from increasing demand on health and care services.
“The reasons for this are well rehearsed, demographic challenges, increasingly complex care needs, advances in the care and treatment services we are able to offer and I recognise that those pressure are felt by our staff.
“That is why we have acted and will continue to act to support our workforce, increasing training numbers in our nursing and midwifery places, our medical undergraduates, our medical post graduate programme and in the EHI pathway, promoting training pathways, supporting board recruitment and retention, promoting staff health and well being and increasing the employee voice.
“Delivering sustainable services is not simply about supporting recruitment and retention.
“The health and wellbeing of our health force is of fundamental importance.”
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