SCOTTISH ministers have been accused of an NHS cover-up after more than 600 missing consultant vacancies were uncovered by the British Medical Association (BMA).

Official data reported 439 vacancies, a rate of 6.9 per cent.

But a freedom of information request by the union’s Scotland branch showed the actual rate was more than double, at 15.9 per cent, with 1,076 whole-time equivalent vacancies.

Dr Alan Robertson, chairman of BMA’s Scottish consultants committee, said the “missing” figures are enough to staff two large hospitals and come as “no surprise given the deepening medical workforce crisis we are clearly in.”

He added: “The Scottish government needs to be honest — not only with the public, but also with those of us working in the NHS.

“When they declare ‘more doctors than ever before,’ not only are they not accounting for the full scale of demand being put on services, they are not being honest about the senior doctors we are missing from the workforce or how many more are needed.

“We are constantly trying to plug gaps in rotas and make it through each shift, one day at a time.”

The difference in the figures is because official data does not include posts filled by locums, posts that have not yet been advertised or posts that have remained vacant for so long they are no longer being advertised — all included in BMA data.

Consultant vacancies also increased from BMA Scotland’s December 2022 figure of 937 whole-time equivalent doctors.

The Scottish government said its NHS workforce statistics are produced by NHS Education Scotland following the official statistics code of practice.