LOCAL MSP Jackie Baillie has accused the SNP of presiding over a “nursing crisis” in the area's health boards.

According to analysis by Scottish Labour, spending on private agency nurses has rocketed in both NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Highland in recent years.

Across Scotland, the SNP Government spent almost £60 million on private agency nurses between 2011 and 2016.

According to Labour's figures, private agency nurse spend has increased by 222 per cent in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area between 2011 and 2016 – while the increase in the NHS Highland area, which includes Helensburgh and Lomond, is 311 per cent.

In the NHS GGC area spending went up from £1.24 million in 2011-12 to £2.76 million in 2015-16, while over the same period the amount spend on agency nurses increased from almost £327,000 to £1.02 million.

Blaming the problem on the large number of nurse vacancies across Scotland, Ms Baillie said: “We are in the middle of the biggest nursing crisis in the history of the NHS yet the SNP Health Secretary appears determined to stick her head in the sand and deny a problem even exists.

“The SNP need to listen to what our nurses are saying – only a third of NHS staff believe there are enough of them to do their jobs properly and barely 13% of nurses think the health service can cope.

"What we are seeing is under-resourced NHS staff at the same time as huge increases in private agency staff. That means millions of pounds of public money is going into the pockets of private companies when it should be used to support NHS nurses and improve local services at the Vale of Leven Hospital.

“It’s because of a lack of long term vision around our health service that our nurses today are being let down. When Nicola Sturgeon was Health Minister she cut training places for nurses and midwives and now that is coming back to haunt our hospitals."

An NHS Highland spokesperson said: “NHS Highland closely monitors its use of agency locum nurses across all of its services and is taking action to ensure that agency usage is kept to a minimum.

“The reason for the increase in spending since 2011 -2012 is primarily due to the Vanguard Theatre services at Raigmore Hospital. The Vanguard Theatre is a separate staffed theatre facility whose nursing costs are charged to the Vanguard agency. This accounted for approximately 70% of the total agency spend for nurses in NHS Highland in 2015-2016.

“In addition, we are implementing a number of other programmes to continue to improve our recruitment and retention of nurses across NHS Highland to sustain a staffing model that minimises the use of agency staff.”

A spokesperson for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: “The figures quoted of the cost of agency staff is 0.4% of our total spend on nursing staff which is approximately £613m and include nursing staff providing healthcare in the community and other settings outwith acute hospitals.

“We always have a number of vacancies given the natural turnover in an organisation which employs more than 38,000. These vacancies take time to fill and we have rigorous recruitment processes in place to ensure that posts are filled appropriately.

“Our vacancy numbers fluctuate on a regular basis and the vacancy figure quoted by Jackie Baillie will have been taken at one moment in time.

“This is our peak time for nurse recruitment due to the high graduate output from the universities at this time of year. As a result we will have successfully filled a number of nursing vacancies

“We have a robust retention and recruitment strategy in place and strive to ensure that the packages we offer to nursing staff of all levels are as attractive as possible.

“We have a strong focus on training and personal development and flexible working arrangements allowing staff to better manage their work and home life.”