MORE than 1500 NHS posts were axed in Scotland between March and June this year, prompting claims that patient care is being placed in jeopardy.

Nurses and midwives accounted for one in three job losses and the head of Scotland’s nurses warned their shrinking workforce spells “bad news” for frontline services.

NHS Scotland revealed an almost 1% drop in the number of nurses and midwives in Scotland’s hospitals in the three months to June 30, from 66,425 to 65,856 – a total of 569 fewer posts.

The figures came against an overall cut in NHS Scotland staff, excluding GPs, of 1589 during the three month period –including a 7.5% cut in senior management posts.

It follows previous cuts in nursing and midwifery staff of more than 1200 between September 2009 and March 2011.

Theresa Fyffe, director of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland, said she was concerned that the pace of job losses was accelerating.

She said: “The rapid acceleration in the number of nursing posts being lost is bad news for patients. The Scottish Government and the NHS are now faced with a huge challenge – to find ways to deliver high-quality services to more people with increasingly complex needs with an ever shrinking workforce.

“Pressure on health boards to balance books and make more and more savings has resulted in them chipping away at the workforce to save money on pay. It is now time for health boards to look more carefully at savings that could be made in other areas, such as sharing clinical and backroom services.”

Opposition parties also attacked the cut in numbers of nurses and midwives, with Labour accusing the SNP of going back on its election promise to protect frontline services.

Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie, said: “These figures expose the fact that the SNP is allowing our NHS to haemorrhage staff, especially nurses, at an alarming rate. The SNP has cut the number of nurses to its lowest level since 2005 and even more nurses are set to lose their jobs next year. It is a disgrace that frontline nurses are being forced to bear the brunt of the SNP’s cuts. Nurses should be in our hospitals, and in our communities, not joining the dole queue.”

A total of 525 administrative posts were axed – a fall of 1.9% – while 29 consultant posts were also lost, equivalent to 0.6% of the total consultant workforce.

Murdo Fraser, Scottish Tory health spokesman, said: “No doubt the SNP will try to argue these are only small reductions, but they have occurred over very short periods of time. They represent a growing trend of cuts in frontline staff when the SNP gave a commitment that this wouldn’t happen.”

The figures reveal that almost 90 management grade roles were axed during the three months – a fall of 7.5% – although a spokesman for ISD Scotland, the body which produces the statistics, said differences in how it and the Scottish Government define executive posts meant its figures did not reflect how well the Government was progressing with its target to reduce NHS senior management by 25% by 2015.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said the NHS was coping with fewer nurses due to patients spending less time in hospital and increasing numbers of patients visiting hospital for day procedures, instead of having to stay in overnight.

She said: “I appreciate that any reduction in the NHS workforce – particularly when it involves nurses – will cause concern. The fact is, though, that the NHS doesn’t stand still.

“The way that services are delivered is constantly changing. For example, over three quarters of all surgery is now done on a day case rather than an inpatient basis, and hospital stays are shorter than ever before.”