SHRINK STINK

Health board counts cost of struggle to fill senior posts

- ANDREW QUINN

A SCOTTISH health board is spending up to £1.2million a year on just two locum consultants.

The eye-watering sum is being splashed out by NHS Western Isles for two senior psychiatrists.

The health service can end up forking out £600,000 a year on one locum compared to £200,000 for a doctor who takes on a permanent role.

But NHS Western Isles say they have struggled to find consultant psychiatrists to take up full-time positions.

Last night the huge outlay was slammed by critics of the SNP government's handling of the NHS in Scotland.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: "The SNP government needs to end its shambolic approach to workforce planning and increase the number of consultant psychiatrists in training to plug these gaps.

"There is a dangerous staffing crisis within NHS mental health services, with vacancies at particularly high levels in rural and remote parts of the country.

"Scottish Liberal Democrat research has previously revealed that one in four of the most senior mental health roles are either lying empty or being filled on a temporary basis, meaning longer waits for patients and vast amounts of money being spent on staff to try to plug gaps.