NHS Scotland in crisis: Number of senior doctors planning to take early retirement is yet another warning sign about the existential threat faced by health service – Scotsman comment

The NHS has been in a state of ‘crisis’ for so long that there is a danger of complacency, as politicians and the public start to accept its myriad of problems as just the way things are.

However, for those working in the NHS, there is no escaping the everyday reality of a crumbling service. So it is hardly surprising that nearly half of all senior hospital doctors in Scotland aged over 50 are planning to take early retirement.

A survey carried out by Dundee University researchers – commissioned by NHS employers, the British Medical Association, and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and Faculties in Scotland – found many were planning to retire between two and eight years early, with others planning to reduce their working hours gradually. Just 22 per cent said they expected to work their full hours until retirement age.

The main reason doctors gave was the pension taxation regime, which Chancellor Jeremy Hunt recently sought to address by abolishing the £1.07 million cap on private pension pots and increasing the annual tax-free allowance. While this may have removed one incentive to retire early, the second biggest reason was dissatisfaction with the NHS.

Professor Graeme Martin said their research found “a strong sense of disillusionment with [doctors’] organisational and NHS leaders, declining engagement with work and its sense of moral purpose” and “evidence of burnout”. Their survey was “more worrying” than previous work in this area because it found many doctors felt “their work lacks the meaning it once held for them”.

In order to return the NHS to the world-leading service it once provided, it needs sufficient staff. If pay and conditions are driving too many people away and failing to attract replacements – in December, a freedom of information request revealed vacancies for consultants in Scotland represented more than 14 per cent of the senior doctor workforce – then the health service is doomed.

As frustrated patients who can afford it increasingly take out health insurance, a two-tier system will likely evolve in which the best and brightest healthcare staff go to the private sector. The NHS has served the country well for decades. Today it stands at a historic crossroads and, ultimately, voters need to decide its future path: towards a transformational rebirth or continued decay and decline.