Where is the Scottish plan on staffing in the NHS?

New types of role are planned such as physician associates and nursing associates. Nursing training places will increase by 92%, pharmacy training places by 50%.

Crucially, the number of medical school places to train young doctors will double and will be targeted at areas with the greatest shortages. With the population aging there is a realisation that medical training needs to be more generalist and so the number of GP training places will increase by 50%.

This is all very impressive but the changes all relate to the NHS in England. Health in Scotland is fully devolved so we need a comparable plan here to improve recruitment and retention. This is vital because there is currently a crisis in the NHS in Scotland – there are over 400 consultant vacancies and BMA Scotland estimates that Scotland has over 300 full-time GP vacancies. 8.2% of nursing and midwifery roles are unfilled in Scotland. NHS spending on locum doctors, dentists and bank nurses in Scotland in the 2021-22 financial year was £423.4 million, almost double the figure in 2014.

The formulation of the NHS workplace plan in England was helped by the fact that Jeremy Hunt, the current Chancellor, was previously the Health Secretary and chairman of the Commons health select committee. Humza Yousaf, the current First Minister and Nicola Sturgeon, his predecessor, were both Scottish Health Secretaries in the past, so where is the SNP plan to put staffing in the NHS in Scotland on a sustainable footing and improve patient care? On the presumption the SNP does not have such a plan the SNP should copy the Conservatives’ plan for the NHS in England.

Dr Bruce Halliday, Dumfries

Excellent stroke care in hospital

I read the article by Helen McArdle (“'Horror’ at standard of care for stroke patients”, The Herald, June 28) with some astonishment. On May 30th this year, I was struck by a stroke at home. My wife called an ambulance. I was taken 20 minutes later to the Royal Alexandra Hospital Paisley where the attention I received was immediate, caring, respectful and professional by all staff.

I remained in the hospital for two weeks and the treatment and care certainly “maximised my chances of recovery”. In fact, I was able to see how they care for their other patients and was amazed at the standard of nursing. I may be lucky to be in the 50% of patients receiving the “stroke care bundle” but I am in no doubt that the standard of care at the RAH is top of the range.

By the way, my wife and I were surprised to receive a beautiful card from the King and Queen today congratulating us on our 40th wedding anniversary. As Billy C used to say, “is that the time already?” Best wishes to the NHS.

Graham Bruce Thomson, Paisley

Booking system not fit for purpose

The damaging of island life and business caused solely by the upper management of CalMac Ferries Ltd and their sub-standard unprofessional stewardship of the infamous £18m, taxpayer-funded “new booking system” (it is now neither new nor in any meaningful sense a booking system) must be ceased immediately.

The cost of the thousands of accumulating small mistakes that these mis-managers and their so-called booking system have caused is measurable not only in revenue lost to island businesses and CalMac but also in the mental health of the CalMac staff who have to answer face to face with the public for the deficiencies of their bosses. Lest we forget, ferry bookings were at one time more efficiently handled by CalMac staff when they wielded nothing more technical than an HB pencil with an eraser on the top.

We are talking about daily misrepresentations of available space on ferries (for instance the system declaring the boat full to cars when there are in fact many free spaces on the sailing on the day), minor data breaches, cancelled holidays because the 'computer says no and most perniciously, customer confidence is being eroded.

We are talking about the partial breakdown between the real world of travellers trying to go somewhere and the cyber world that is the “new CalMac bookings system”. The staff members I have spoken to, on board the vessels, on shore and on the phone openly admit the system is fatally flawed (shall we say for politeness) and causing havoc.

From the ferry skippers down, CalMac is still a great company of people. Above that grade I'm not so sure. Whoever the individual is that instigated this booking system and introduced it on the summer timetable, perched high in this company's chain of command so utterly incompetently, may seem like an irremovable obstacle to both CalMac itself and island life/business but the road to recovery has to start somewhere and hopefully his/her reassignment (bilge disposal officer?) can be actioned before it is too late.

Peter Isaacson, Tiree

An innovator of alternative technology

Your article on the heating of Govan Old Parish Church by a river source heat pump (“Heat from Clyde to provide energy to historic church”, The Herald, July 3) goes on to mention that the Queens Quay Heat Pump Energy Centre was the first project to take heat from the River Clyde for energy, in October 2021.

This project was preceded some 14 years ago with the river source heat pump operated by Tall Ship Glenlee as an environmentally-friendly heating system utilising metal heat collectors in the river between the vessel and the quay. These provide heat to power onboard radiators and water heaters.

The 126-year-old historic vessel, berthed beside the Riverside Museum, was one of the first structures in Scotland to install and benefit from such technology and was probably the first floating museum ship in the world and UK National Historic Vessel to be heated with renewable energy.

Today, this approach has been continued and extended with the installation of two discrete air heat pumps on the aft deckhouse to take heat from the atmosphere providing further onboard heating or, in hot weather, cooling. Again, Tall Ship Glenlee is proving an innovator in the use of alternative technology for historic ships.

Elizabeth Allen, vice chair of Tall Ship Glenlee Trust, Glasgow