PARLIAMENTARY: Proposed Commissioner for Older People (Scotland) Bill

Colin Smyth MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour, has launched a consultation on a draft proposal for a bill to establish an independent commissioner to promote and safeguard the rights and interests of older people.

Day in, day out, nurses and nursing support workers are working together with their medical and other health and social care colleagues across Scotland, providing high quality care to our older people. With an ageing population, and increasingly complex clinical needs being met in social care and community settings, it has never been more important for Scotland to have the right numbers of nursing staff, with the right skills in the right place. Unfortunately, Scotland’s nursing workforce crisis is resulting in severe staffing shortages, with almost one in 10 posts vacant in community nursing teams and 60% of care services that employ nurses reporting vacancies.