MORE than a thousand nursing and midwifery jobs have been cut from the Scottish NHS this year, demolishing SNP government claims to be protecting services, Scottish Labour said today.

Finance Secretary Shona Robison had assured Holyrood last month that “essential posts on the front line … will be protected in terms of recruitment,” dismissing accusations that newly qualified nurses in Glasgow had been told they had no jobs to apply for.

Official statistics, however, show that numbers of nurses and midwives had fallen by 1,152 from 70,980 in June 2023 to 69,828 in June this year.

Scottish Labour’s Dame Jackie Baillie said: “The SNP government’s empty promise to protect front-line jobs has been blown out of the water already.

“Even before the scale of the financial chaos was made public, the SNP was quietly cutting nursing and midwifery jobs from our NHS.

“It beggars belief that as our NHS is fighting for survival, with waiting lists at a record high and patients languishing in corridors, the SNP is getting rid of front-line staff.”

A Scottish government spokesperson said: “Our overall workforce, including nursing and midwifery staffing, has increased over the last year.”