• Contact
  • About
  • Authors
DONATE
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
  • Login
Bylines Scotland
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Lifestyle
  • World
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Lifestyle
  • World
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Opinion
Bylines Scotland
Home Health

Back to the future: staff training in NHS Scotland

Once upon a time, staff training models within NHS Scotland delivered…

Lynne CoplandbyLynne Copland
20-05-2023 06:39
in Health, NHS Scotland
Reading Time: 6 mins
A A
Heart of NHS

Illustration by Patis Paton printed with permission

299
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

I am going to be a tad self-indulgent in this article, so get your violins at the ready because I’m going to tell you about the ‘good old days’ as a medical laboratory technologist. How a career in science was launched, back in the 1970s, and why it might not be such a bad idea to revert to successful training models in the Scottish Health Service, including those in primary care, which existed decades ago.

Back in the 70s, I embarked on a journey of discovery which has sustained me throughout my adult life. That is not an understatement… science and innovation is what keeps me sane.

Picture the scene – a gaggle of hippy-era late teens descend on a hospital training lab, resplendent in lightly starched, Persil-white lab coats buttoned right up under their chins, itching to get their hands on what would become the ‘tools of their trade’. The varnished, heavy wood surfaces of the lab benches beckoned, the slight whiff of stale formaldehyde – an aroma that provided the ‘Ah…Bisto’ element for those young trainee technicians eager to learn skills which would assist fellow medical professionals in protecting and caring for real people.

Lecturers ranged from senior laboratory scientists to professors who taught us the theory and practical skills needed in every medical laboratory discipline. We had to be well-equipped so we could be seconded to any lab within the hospital, if required. So we studied haematology, clinical pathology, medical microbiology, blood typing/transfusion and histopathology. We worked in our labs most days and attended day release classes for further training, and were taught additional practical skills in the evenings. It was full-on skill attainment back then! The job was interesting, time-consuming but fun, and the camaraderie and a sense of common purpose kept us all motivated to achieve high standards in our work.

Private sector is not the solution to public cuts

Fast forward to the present day, when the HNC medical laboratory technologists have been replaced by degree-holding biomedical scientists who tend to specialise in one lab discipline. It is important to note that salaries haven’t changed much although conditions have. In Scotland, shortages and reduced availability of trained staff has led to contracting out healthcare services to private companies. Ironically, many/most lab staff in these private companies were trained in NHS hospital labs in much the same way as private consultants and surgeons trained in the NHS – all frequently supplying consultations, treatment and surgery in private hospitals.

Lab analysis such as pathology and blood analysis are not the only service being outsourced to private companies. Analysis of CT and/or radiography scans, admin services, pathology, blood analysis, provision of facilities, theatre and equipment can be, and often are, outsourced to private companies. eg. InHealth, a company which operates Cardiac Cath labs in Scotland, is the largest provider of outsourced NHS services in the UK, with a reported annual revenue of almost £146.3mn in 2021, up from £124mn in 2020. The company’s profit was almost £11.4mn in 2021, up from £6.6mn in 2020.

Another arm of the InHealth Group, the diagnostic and imaging provider, reported a 23% leap in annual revenue to £218mn for the year end 30 September 2021, despite ongoing disruption from the Covid-19 pandemic. This was despite lower levels of activity across a number of its service lines being lower than pre-pandemic levels.

Health service
Economy

Funding the Scottish Health Service 

byLynne Copland
28 February 2023

The adoption of business practices by SNHS services

So, the reason I have related the backstory about lab tech training is that it is much the same one that applies to primary care, specifically GP services. The financialisation, marketisation and, indeed, the stealth privatisation of health services now permeating our NHS, including the SNHS, has led to shortages in trained staff, fewer mentoring and on-the-job training opportunities and/or schemes for fledgling GPs resulting in much reduced staffing levels and poor staff retention.

Aside from the obvious changes, the rise of the so called ‘super practices’ and the increasing use of digital tools in GP practices.

On a practical level, it is all very well looking to nurses to upskill to take on some of the roles of a GP to alleviate demand, stress and to enhance capacity, but the loss of basic skills amongst GPs and reduced face-to-face consultations is unlikely to stem the flow of the chronically sick, and frail elderly patients. The reverse should be happening. Advanced nurse practitioners are ideal candidates for taking on GP roles in the future, and should not be considered as lower paid alternatives to a GP.

Is the reduction in the numbers of GPs because those qualified doctors looking to enter the GP profession cannot practice the full range of skills they have been taught at med school? Is the increase in advanced nurse practitioners a ploy to reduce business costs and not what it should be…an opportunity for advancement if desired?

Can private companies co-exist with public services?

Of course they can, but this collaboration cannot continue to be to the detriment of the SNHS and the Scottish government’s commitment to a wellbeing economy. The extraction and, some would say, exploitation of trained and skilled labour resources, at no cost to private industry, must cease together with the outsourcing of health services to private health entities. The SNHS has been stripped and denied of its assets… of its biggest asset – its people.

Is it too late to return to the ‘good old days’ when patients were afforded a consult/appointment with their ‘own doctor’? The SNHS must reverse the damage done through the adoption of business management practices. Politicians must start to prepare for an iScotland that will excel in delivering an SNHS capable of providing the necessary healthcare resources for a wellbeing economy by laying the foundation stones of a Central Bank to financially support our SNHS.

Much could be achieved when Scotland has access to the benefits of its own currency. For now, we should be addressing the demands of our healthcare professionals by investing in their futures – training and mentoring future generations. After all, they will be the ones providing a central pillar of Scotland’s desired wellbeing economy.


Mockup of gazette cover

Our monthly gazette is now available free to all newsletter subscribers

    Sign up! 
Tags: NHS
Previous Post

Forth and Clyde Drowned by the Thames and Mersey

Next Post

Your Library Needs You

Lynne Copland

Lynne Copland

Lynne is a bio & environmental scientist and member of the Finance & Banking Working group ( Scottish Currency Group)

Related Posts

Hands representing care
Health

“Very Dire financial situation” for social care in East Renfrewshire

byDrew Sandelands
30 November 2023
Unused vaccine and people queueing in NHS
Covid

Vaccines: our Best Shot at a Healthier Tomorrow

byDr Patricia S Paton
23 November 2023
Aphantasia
Health

Aphantasia: When you cannot visualise

bySusie Porter
5 November 2023
A man looking through the windows during lockdown with Covid-19 circulating outside
Covid

Covid inquiry: where was the fault in the central decision-making?

byDr. Daniel Goyal
16 October 2023
Hidden disabilities sunflower lanyard
Covid

Long Covid can be a hidden disability that we need to recognise

bySusie Porter
22 September 2023
Next Post
Library with Nilly Connolly quote and computers

Your Library Needs You

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR CROWDFUNDER

Subscribe to our newsletters
CHOOSE YOUR NEWS
Follow us on social media
CHOOSE YOUR PLATFORMS
Download our app
ALL OF BYLINES IN ONE PLACE
Subscribe to our gazette
CONTRIBUTE TO OUR SUSTAINABILITY
Make a monthly or one-off donation
DONATE NOW
Help us with our hosting costs
SIGN UP TO SITEGROUND
We are always looking for citizen journalists
WRITE FOR US
Volunteer as an editor, in a technical role, or on social media
VOLUNTEER FOR US
Something else?
GET IN TOUCH
Previous slide
Next slide

LATEST

Standing legs with vote symbols representing the responsibility of choosing a leader

We must take responsibility for choosing our leaders

11 December 2023
Portrait of Jackie Porter

Jackie of the Special Operations Executive

10 December 2023
Dover, United Kingdom. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visits a Border Force cutter boat in the Dover Strait. Picture by Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street

Stop the boats! The draconian Rwanda plan

9 December 2023
Education system represented by a child in a school blackboard

PISA evidence suggests Scottish approach to curriculum is less effective than England’s

8 December 2023

MOST READ

Behaviour modification represented by a brain in a light bulb with books in the background

Scottish Greens vote to ban ‘Behaviour Modification’ practices for disabled people

4 December 2023
Ravenglass in Cumbria

Supporting the bereaved – what not to say

2 December 2023
Police Scotland in front of former Primer Minister of Scotland

The public has lost patience with Police Scotland and Operation Branchform

29 November 2023
Education system represented by a child in a school blackboard

PISA evidence suggests Scottish approach to curriculum is less effective than England’s

8 December 2023

BROWSE BY TAGS

Afghanistan Charity Christmas Climate Change Covid19 Defence Devolution Edinburgh Election EU European Movement Ferry Fish Farms Glasgow Halloween History Holyrood IndyRef2 Labour LGBT+ LizTruss MargaretThatcher Monarchy music NATO NHS Poverty PressRelease ProEU PublicHealth Russia SarsCoV2 Scotland ScottishIndependence SecurityAndDefence Shape of Things to Come ShipBuilding SNP Tories Twitter Ukraine UKSupremeCourt Universal Basic Income Vaccines WarInUkraine
Bylines Scotland

We are a not-for-profit citizen journalism publication. Our aim is to publish well-written, fact-based articles and opinion pieces on subjects that are of interest to people in Scotland and beyond.

Bylines Scotland is a trading brand of Bylines Network Limited, which is a partner organisation to Byline Times.

Learn more about us

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • Authors
  • Complaints
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Privacy
  • Network Map
  • Network RSS Feeds
  • Submission Guidelines

© 2023 Bylines Scotland. Powerful Citizen Journalism

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Scotland
    • World
  • Politics
    • Council Areas
    • Europe
    • Holyrood
    • Rest of UK
    • Westminster
  • Lifestyle
    • Arts & Entertainment
    • Christmas
    • Culture
    • Foodie Friday Recipes
    • Halloween
    • History
    • In memoriam
    • Literature
    • Out & About
  • Business
    • Trade
    • Transport
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Opinion
  • Donate
  • Newsletter sign up
CROWDFUNDER

© 2023 Bylines Scotland. Powerful Citizen Journalism

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In