A “LACK of workforce planning” left the NHS Scotland with an “eye-watering” half-billion-pound bill for temporary staff last year, according to Labour.

The remarks came after the latest NHS data revealed that in 2025/26, boards were forced to shell out a staggering £425.5 million on bank and agency in an effort to fill 2,710.7 unfilled whole-time equivalent (WTE) posts in nursing and midwifery, and a further £106.6m for medical and dental locums.

Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Dame Jackie Baillie said: “A lack of workforce planning has not only piled pressure on hardworking NHS staff but wasted billions of pounds of public money.

“Every year eye-watering sums are being spent plugging the gaps in our NHS despite the huge pressure on NHS services and public finances.

“These high costs are draining resources from overstretched front-line services.

“John Swinney and the SNP need to properly support NHS staff and deliver a real long-term workforce plan.”

Calling on the Scottish government to use this week’s NHS debate in Holyrood to acknowledge the figures demonstrate “nursing workforce planning tools are not fit for purpose,” RCN Scotland executive director Colin Poolman said: “Bank and agency nursing and midwifery use equated to over 7,000 WTE staff last year — equivalent to the nursing workforce of an extra medium-sized health board.

“NHS banks or external agencies have a role to play in supplying supplementary or temporary staff on a short-term basis. 

“However, an over-reliance on supplementary staffing is not sustainable and can affect quality of care and patient safety.

“We need to see investment in workforce planning, a renewed focus on delivering safe staffing and action to secure a sustainable nursing workforce to meet current and future demand.”

A Scottish government spokesperson said the majority of the spend was directed though the NHS bank, adding: “In keeping with our commitment to direct as much of our resources as possible towards front-line services, we have decreased the use of nursing and midwifery agency staff by 39 per cent over the past year.

“This, along with additional reductions in agency usage delivered over the last two years, has allowed health boards to reinvest upwards of £116m in the delivery of the services most valued by the Scottish public.”