NEARLY 1000 health service jobs are being axed this year, including 482 nurses and midwives – with more than half of the overall job losses at Scotland's biggest health board.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) is making some of the deepest cuts, shedding almost 600 posts, more than half of which are nursing staff.

Unions warned staffing projections by NHS Scotland for the coming financial year showed the service continued to be under-funded and said it must be realistic about how many nurses are needed to deliver targets and maintain high standards of patient care.

It came as other statistics showed the number of nurses and midwives is at its lowest level since 2005.

Dr Jean Turner, executive director of the Scotland Patients Association, said: "Nursing cutbacks affect patients and the morale of staff. If we ever want to improve the patient experience, we do not want to cut staff. We want to allow people more time to do the job to the best of their ability. I would like to see how NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde justify losing these frontline staff."

Matt McLaughlin, Glasgow health organiser for Unison, said the job losses were the result of underfunding in the health service.

Anne Thomson, the Royal College of Nursing's professional officer for NHSGGC, said: "We are very concerned the nursing workforce is going to be cut yet again this year in NHSGGC. The health board says this is because bed numbers are being cut. But we need to be realistic about the number of nurses employed in the area if the health board is going to continue to deliver

against targets and maintain high standards of patient care."

Most of the job losses will be made through natural wastage.

However, some health boards appear to be protecting frontline workers.

NHSGGC intends to cut 320 nurses and midwives, NHS Grampian 73, NHS Borders 32, NHS Tayside, 17 and NHS Ayrshire and Arran 13. NHS Fife, Lothian and the Western Isles are among those investing in nursing staff.

Across all the regional health boards 980 jobs of all types are to vanish.

Statistics also show about 56,183 nurses and midwives are working for the Scottish health service compared to a high of 58,428 in September 2009 and 56,783 in 2006.

Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour's health spokeswoman, cited a recent inspection at Wishaw General Hospital in North Lanarkshire, which found a pensioner lying naked in his own urine during visiting times.

She added: "These shocking examples of care are becoming more and more common as staffing levels continue to fall."

Ms Baillie added that Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon "promised us she would protect the NHS but has actually taken it back seven years with fewer staff than she inherited".

The Scottish Government admitted that, while workforce projections show an overall increase in NHS jobs of 113, this was mainly due to the transfer of council staff to NHS Highland and the inclusion of nurse interns who were given short-term contracts on qualifying because they could not secure work themselves.

A spokesman added that there were more nurses and midwives per head of population in Scotland than the rest of the UK and more working in the community in Scotland now than in 2006.

NHSGGC said it was transforming the way health care is delivered, resulting in cuts in the number of beds and the time patients need to stay in hospital.

June Smyth, NHS Borders director of workforce & planning, said the public-sector continues to face an "unprecedented financial challenge".