Nearly 500 nursing posts have been lost in Scotland since the end of March, official workforce figures have shown.
The cuts, which include 32 posts in Fife but just one in Tayside, mean Scotland now has fewer nurses and midwives than at any time since 2005.
There are 1000 fewer nurses across Scotland than a year ago and another 485 posts went in the three months to June, leaving 66,425. Across the NHS overall the number of staff fell by 1410 since March.
The number of consultants fell by 0.6%, while professions like physiotherapists, radiographers and speech therapists and nursing and midwifery staff each saw a 0.9% fall. Back room management staff were cut by 2%.
The figures came as health secretary Nicola Sturgeon produced another set of record breaking NHS statistics with waiting times and hospital infections driven down again.
On Tuesday she insisted that smaller staffs would not damage patient care and health boards would only be allowed to cut posts if they can deliver positive benefits to patients.
She said, “Any reduction in health service workforce causes concern and it is understandable that people equate reductions with financial pressures.
“But health services have an obligation to link changes in their workforce to service redesign that make services more efficient while maintaining or improving quality.”‘Growing trend of cuts’She added: “We now have the lowest ever waiting times on record and the lowest levels of hospital infection we have ever seen. We have an NHS that’s delivering and that should be the ultimate judgement.”
She has promised that, by the end of this year, 90% of patients will complete the journey from the doctor’s waiting room to treatment within 18 weeks and yesterday’s figures show that 89.7% have hit the target.
Overall, 99.4% of patients were waiting 12 weeks or less for their first outpatient appointment and 99.1% were waiting less than nine weeks for inpatient/day case treatment.
But critics remained unconvinced.
Tory health spokesman Murdo Fraser said the NHS is facing “a growing trend of cuts in frontline staff when the SNP gave a commitment that this wouldn’t happen”.
The Mid Scotland and Fife MSP added: “The Scottish Government’s own projections show projected cuts in nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals of more than 1000 over the next 12 months.
“The decision of the UK Government to protect health spending allowed the Scottish Government to do the same, but these cuts in doctors, nurses and other professionals will cause serious concern.”
Labour’s Cowdenbeath MSP Helen Eadie said: “Before the recent election Mr Salmond told us that he would protect frontline NHS staff but it’s clear from these figures that his promise was completely worthless.”
Labour’s shadow health secretary Jackie Baillie added: “Scottish Labour wants to see resources going to support essential NHS staff doing a valuable job saving lives.
“The SNP need to stop kidding folk that they are protecting the NHS cutting thousands of nurses will have a direct impact on our services and the quality of patient care.”