South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth has revealed that over 28,000 days have been lost in NHS Dumfries and Galloway because of stress.

The figures compiled by Scottish Labour from Freedom of Information requests show that over 9,000 staff work days have been lost in each of the last three years because of absence due to stress. In 2015/16 9811.9 work days were lost in NHS Dumfries and Galloway because of stress, in 2016/17 the figure was 9265.3 and in 2017/18 the days lost were 9172.8.

Colin Smyth MSP has said that this is a result of the increasing demands on NHS staff, across all services, as a result the NHS Recruitment Crisis.

Colin Smyth MSP said, “Our NHS staff do an amazing job and save countless numbers of life’s day in, day out. It is extremely worrying that 28,000 days over the last three years – that’s over 9,000 work days are being lost in NHS Dumfries and Galloway due to stress. It’s clear that our NHS staff are being pushed to the limit, often delivering high levels of care to the detriment of their own health and wellbeing.

The SNP Government have created an NHS Recruitment Crisis which sees vacancies for posts across the whole NHS sitting vacant for months. We have seen the result the recruitment crisis has had on service delivery with temporary bed limits put in place at some cottage hospitals. The SNP Government must urgently act to fix the recruitment crisis that they have caused to protect both service delivery and the health and wellbeing of our amazing NHS staff.

Scottish Labour has listened to what people working in our health service say has to change and our workforce commission is focused on making the NHS fit for the future. The SNP has created stress and anxiety for patients and staff but it was Labour who created the NHS and we will not accept this complacency from a tired and timid government. Hardworking and dedicated NHS staff deserve better than this.”