Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Hundreds of nurses applying to leave Scotland each year

Hospitals are running wards with a dangerously low number of nurses, an investigation suggests
Hospitals are running wards with a dangerously low number of nurses, an investigation suggests

Fears have been raised that the NHS faces an exodus of key staff after it emerged that more than 1,700 Scottish nurses have sought permission to work abroad in recent years.

New figures from the Nursing and Midwifery Council show that hundreds of nurses who live in Scotland or were trained in the country are applying each year to leave.

Of the 1,744 nurses applying for verification between 2012/13 and 2016/17, almost 1,200 had an address in Scotland, while just over 1,600 were trained north of the border.

The statistics follow a Royal College of Nursing survey last month which showed 36% of members were looking for a new job, while 40% said money worries were making them lose sleep.

Meanwhile, the latest figures show the nursing and midwifery vacancy rate at 4.5% in Scotland.

The Scottish Conservatives, who highlighted the figures, said action must be taken to encourage vital staff to stay in NHS Scotland.

Tory MSP Miles Briggs said: “It’s extremely worrying that hundreds of nurses every year signal their intention to leave and work abroad.

“At a time when recruitment is so challenging, the last thing we need is Scottish-trained nurses upping sticks and moving elsewhere.

“Clearly more needs to be done to incentivise them to stay, otherwise patients and the staff left behind will be the ones who suffer the consequences.

“The SNP can’t point the finger elsewhere – it must try to attract nurses who’ve left back to Scotland, and do more to make sure others don’t leave in the first place.

“In an organisation the size of the NHS there will always be departures to work overseas, but for more than 1600 to have indicated they want to leave in the past five years is alarming.”

The statistics follow revelations in October that 3,000 Scottish-trained doctors have left the country since 2008.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “This government has delivered an all-time record high number of staff in Scotland’s NHS -including more nurses.

“But Brexit – and the UK Government’s determination to end free movement of workers – threatens our ability to continue to secure skilled staff for our health service.”