CHRISTMAS is usually a time for spreading a message of hope, but this year’s statement issued by the chair of BMA Scotland, Dr Lewis Morrison, has given us a large dose of realism instead. Speaking about bullying in the NHS, Dr Morrison said the problem was still widespread and threatened to undermine the quality of care.

The precise scale of the problem is not easy to pin down because much of it is hidden and unreported, but BMA Scotland’s member survey found 38 per cent of doctors saw bullying as an issue in their department. Not only is this a terrible day-to-day burden on staff, Dr Morrison believes it will further exacerbate the difficulties in recruiting and retaining doctors.

The lack of staff is also clearly a big part of the bullying scandal in the first place. In recent years, we have seen the service struggle to recruit staff and the problem is getting worse. This means staff struggle to fill the gap, but as the workload and stress increase, it can also put a strain on staff relationships and lead to bullying – made even worse by the fact staff are often working to difficult (possibly unobtainable) targets. Until the NHS has the staff it needs, this will continue to be a problem.

It is also important to ensure staff can speak out about harassment, but, if anything, we are going in the opposite direction. As Liz Gordon of the GMB put it to The Herald a few weeks ago: “If you speak out, your career takes a sudden turn or goes sour.”

If we are to properly tackle bullying in the NHS, that situation cannot continue. The Scottish Government says it takes the issue seriously and reminds us that it is creating a new national officer to review how cases of whistleblowing are handled. However, the post has yet to be created, and in the long term we will need more than reassuring words.

As Dr Morrison says, bullying is a national scandal in Scotland’s NHS – it will never be solved as long as its staff feel too afraid to speak out.