St John's hospital children's ward continues staff search

Recruitment work is continuing after a staff shortage led to the partial closure of a children's ward, the health secretary has said.

NHS Lothian announced last week that the children's ward at St John's Hospital in Livingston is to close to inpatients for six weeks.

Shona Robison told BBC Scotland there was "no easy solution" to the difficulty of filling paediatric posts.

But she said no other hospital wards had been brought to her attention.

The decision to shut the St John's ward to children needing overnight care followed a warning that it would pose a risk to safety if it remained open.

NHS Lothian said at the time it had not managed to fill key medical and nursing posts in the ward despite recruitment campaigns.

It came three years after a similar summer shutdown at St John's.

Ms Robison told the Sunday Politics Scotland programme that the problem of filling paediatric posts was not confined to Livingston.

She said: "The same issue did happen three years ago and the same issues pertain to paediatrics. We have increased the number of paediatric consultant posts by 76%, we have gone out internationally to try and recruit, but it is very difficult to find the people for those posts.

"We have helped Lothian to overcome a number of problems. For example, we've expanded the number of advanced nurse practitioners who are working in paediatrics.

"We have been working with them to some success. The service has stabilised over those three years. But a culmination of sick leave, maternity leave and then annual leave has brought things to an unsustainable position over the summer.

"We will continue to work with Lothian and other boards to help them to recruit to these specialities which are very difficult to recruit to."

When asked to reassure that the children's ward will not close again next summer, Ms Robison said: "We are going internationally again to try and recruit paediatric posts, we will continue to expand the number of nurse practitioner posts.

"I don't envisage that it will close next summer. The issues of sick leave, maternity leave and annual leave all came together this summer, I don't envisage that those issues would come together next summer in the way they have this summer."

NHS Lothian said on Wednesday it had not taken the decision to close the children's ward lightly but the safety of children was its top priority. It also stressed that the staffing shortage was not due to financial reasons.

Last year 3,000 children were admitted to the ward, with 700 requiring a stay of 24 hours or more.

Scottish Labour's health spokeswoman Jenny Marra said: "Families and patients across Scotland will be concerned that the health secretary could not give the most basic of assurances that services would not close again next summer.

"In the case of St John's, we are seeing the same problems from three years ago, it is clear the SNP government in Edinburgh did not learn the lessons of 2012 and now it is families in the Lothians who are losing out."