We cannot afford not to pay our nurses properly

Many people are perhaps guilty of taking nurses for granted. They bring most of us into the world and ease most of us out, and in between we are grateful if we have very little need of them at all.

This completely misplaced attitude might help explain why nurses and midwives are paid far less here than in other countries.

It is perhaps little wonder that so many choose to leave Scotland for better-paid jobs in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Ireland, Canada and the United Arab Emirates.

The recent steep rise in the numbers opting to pursue their careers abroad ought to set alarm bells ringing at NHS Scotland.

Last year, 583 nurses and midwives sought approval from the Nursing and Midwifery Council to move abroad – a 62 per cent increase on the year before, and double the rate of 2018-19.

It is a depressing trend that will only continue until the NHS in Scotland offers salaries on a par with the likes of Australia and New Zealand. We must stop taking such vital workers for granted or the crisis that is painfully apparent in our healthcare system will deepen.

Further evidence of this crisis comes with a new survey from the British Medical Association (BMA) which has found that a quarter of family doctors are considering quitting their profession in the next two years, and more than two fifths of practices cannot meet demand from patients.

Just one in 20 GPs in Scotland believes their practice is in a long-term sustainable position and three in five fear for the future of their workplace if it was to lose a GP.

With record borrowing and an economy paralysed by ‘stagflation’, demands on public finances seem stretched like never before. And it is true that spending on the NHS has grown in recent decades as the UK population has grown and aged.

Both the Scottish and UK governments must ensure public spending on healthcare is directed where it is needed most. Rather than ever-more layers of management, we must focus on attracting and retaining the nurses, midwives and doctors on whom we all rely.