The number of doctors specially trained to carry out examinations of abused youngsters is likely to fall significantly in the next few years, a report has warned.
There are currently 42 paediatricians across Scotland who provide forensic services, examining children who have been victims of abuse and collecting any evidence.
But an expert group has said that maintaining a "competent specialist workforce" in this area will be challenging.
The group, which includes doctors as well as senior figures from the police and Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, examined access to specialist medical staff with expertise in child protection.
While they said there were 31 consultants and 11 speciality doctors providing forensic services at the moment, their report warned that the age range of these staff suggests a shortage will occur in the next five to 10 years.
The group has now recommended that all health boards should identify at least one consultant paediatrician with a special interest in child protection.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article