A NURSING union warned today that the Scottish NHS urgently needs a retention strategy.

The latest NHS Scotland figures show that the number of nurses in the service grew from 61,567 whole-time equivalent (WTE) staff to 63,605 over the last year.

But vacancies in the field remain high, with 3,961.8 WTE posts still unfilled as of the end of last year, more than before the coronavirus pandemic.

A new Royal College of Nursing Scotland (RCN) report calls for the Scottish government to “develop and implement a fully funded nursing retention strategy” over the next year to bring down the number of vacancies, which the union says is leaving nurses burnt out and putting patients at risk.

Calling on the SNP government to “get serious about the workforce crisis,” RCN Scotland’s Julie Lamberth warned: “Nursing vacancies are having a damaging impact on our members’ ability to provide safe and effective care.”

Scottish Health Secretary Neil Gray said: “I know that more needs to be done to recruit and retain our valuable workforce and that is why I am chair of the nursing and midwifery taskforce, which aims to build on efforts to make Scotland the best place for nurses and midwives to come to work.”