The plight of a Dundee nursing graduate struggling to find a job has provoked outrage at Holyrood.
The Courier revealed how Sasha Munns (21) is now registered unemployed despite joining a Scottish Government scheme that is meant to guarantee her a job.
She is one of the victims of the strain placed on the much-lauded one-year job guarantee scheme for newly qualified nurses and midwives. It has been overwhelmed as health boards cut recruitment to slash budgets.
Tory health spokesman Murdo Fraser described the situation as a “scandalous waste of talent.”
He said, “The Scottish Government is supposed to be guaranteeing every newly qualified nurse a job for at least one year. They have clearly failed this Dundee graduate and there will be many others across Scotland who are in the same boat.
“Nicola Sturgeon needs to explain why the one-year job guarantee scheme is not living up to its name.”Difficulty
Last month it emerged around 300 graduate nurses had been unable to find work in Scotland in the previous year. That total is expected to grow as more courses finish.
Former St Saviour”s High School pupil Sasha is one of the hundreds hoping to find work in the next few months.
The one-year guarantee scheme was launched to help nurses start their career as health authorities were struggling to employ new nurses and midwives under their own funding. Designed to work like the probationary teachers” scheme, it is open to graduates who have not been unable to secure a job through their own efforts.
But while only nine graduates registered with the scheme in 2003, that number has now rocketed.Sham
Labour”s Dundee-based list candidate for North East Scotland Jenny Marra said the scheme was a “sham”.
She said, “It’s a horrible situation for young people who have spent three years training, and terrible for the NHS. Nicola Sturgeon has toexplain why the SNP is makingpromises to young people, putting them through training for three years, and failing to deliver jobs at the end.
“The SNP is undermining the care in our National Health Service in Scotland. Employingfewernurses is the most short-sighted cut that a health minister can make.”
Liberal Democrat North East MSP Alison McInnes added, “The government need to investigate this Job Guarantee Scheme to see why it has not always worked.”
The Scottish Government has insisted it is committed to the scheme and that all newly registered nurses and midwives will be offered a post with the NHS within the next few months.
It costs between £45,000 and £51,000 to train each nurse graduate.