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RCN Scotland’s response to the Scottish Parliament’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee call for evidence on their Pre-Budget Scrutiny 2024-25

This response was originally submitted using a Scottish Parliament online form

One of the key messages from Audit Scotland’s NHS in Scotland in 2022 report was that, despite the general trend of health spending in Scotland being one of growth, growing financial pressures present a real risk to the investment needed to recover and reform services.

The Scottish Government’s Medium-Term Financial Strategy sets out the considerations behind the decision to apply a higher growth rate of 4% per annum to Health and Social Care expenditure, including inflationary pressures, an ageing population and increasing disease burden. But it doesn’t adequately address the fact that Scotland simply doesn’t have the nursing workforce that it requires right now, with Audit Scotland’s report also concluding that workforce capacity remains the biggest risk to the recovery of NHS services.