NHS workers being ‘driven to burnout’ due to understaffed shifts – Labour

Scottish Labour has said NHS staff are being driven “to the point of burnout” after figures suggested frontline workers faced understaffed shifts on thousands of occasions last year.

Figures released due to Scottish Labour freedom of information (FOI) requests suggest key workers were on understaffed shifts on 348,675 occasions last year.

There were 333,296 unfilled nurse and midwife shifts in 2024, according to the FOI data.

The data suggests on average NHS managers were struggling to fill more than 900 shifts every day.

Scottish Labour’s health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said: “Working an NHS shift has always been demanding but these alarming figures show our doctors, nurses and midwives are stretched beyond their limit — with patients suffering as a result.

“Our hard-working NHS staff will always do their best but they are let down by an SNP government that fritters away millions on expensive agency staff while leaving doctors without jobs and patients at risk.

“The SNP Government is driving NHS staff to the point of burnout — it must deal with this workforce crisis before it becomes a doom loop.

“Scottish Labour will deliver a proper workforce plan for our NHS so that doctors, nurses and midwives can do the job they are trained to do and patients get the treatment they need.”

The numbers are an estimate as not all health boards held data on unfilled medical shifts whilst some nursing and midwifery figures relate to financial rather than calendar years. The shifts do not include those that were originally uncovered but filled by agency or bank staff.

In a report published earlier this year, the Royal College of Nursing Scotland warned that in the 12 months to May 2025 “at no point has NHS Scotland employed the number of nursing staff needed to deliver safe and effective care”.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We are immensely grateful to Scotland’s NHS workforce who are working tirelessly to help the health service recover from the pandemic.

“Thanks to their efforts, Scotland’s core A&E units have consistently been the best performing in the UK for a decade, 97% of patients leave Scotland’s hospitals without delays and we saw record numbers of hip and knee replacements performed last year.

“Through record levels of investment, we have delivered 13 consecutive years of workforce growth, including a 57.2% rise in medical staff since September 2006, and an 18.6% rise in nursing and midwifery staff.

“We are determined to tackle the pressures facing the NHS. However, there is no doubt that many of the external pressures facing our social care sector in particular are a result of UK Government decisions, including increasingly restrictive and hostile migration policies.

“We continually explore what more we can do to support staff and are working in partnership with trade unions to ensure careers in NHS Scotland remain attractive, including through our Nursing & Midwifery Taskforce and our newly established Future Medical Workforce project.”