Patient lives could be put at risk if staffing shortages in the NHS in Scotland are not addressed, a leading nurse has warned.
Nurses across Scotland are set to go on strike later this year after members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) were balloted for the first time in 106 years over a pay deal.
Julie Lamberth, chair of the RCN Scotland board, said nurses are leaving the health service over pay. It comes after the most recent Scottish Government offer of a flat rate of £2,205 per person was rejected by the majority of nurses.
The NHS has faced problems filling vacancies which has led to staff being forced to carry out overtime in order to keep the health service running.
Lamberth told the BBC's Sunday Show : "Eight out of 10 nurses said their last shift was unsafe, it wasn't safely staffed and that's due to these vacancies. It means there could be delays to the care that they're needing. Nurses are often leaving feeling at the end of the shift 'I could have done more. I could have spent more time with that patient'.
"There's not enough nurses and they don't have that same time. Lives could be put at risk due to short staffing and we are short staffed. We're not recruiting to the profession. We're not retaining, we've got 700 unfilled student nurse vacancies just now.
"We were already in a crisis before covid it's just been exacerbated during covid, and it highlighted nursing. We all stepped up, we can adapt, we can work elsewhere. But right now, our skills, our knowledge with this recent pay award has not been valued and the nursing workforce have had enough."
Lamberth said nurses are leaving the NHS to work in private health care in order for better pay and "flexibility".
She added: "I hear from nurses that have left because they can't afford to stay working in the NHS and they'll go work privately because of the flexibility.
"They can work where they want, when they want and the pay is much better."
Ambulance workers in Scotland also voted to take industrial action for one day on November 28. A date hasn't been set for the strike action by nurses, however the RCN's mandate runs to May next year.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf admitted the Scottish Government doesn't have the money to avert the strike action and has called on the UK Government to do more.
He said: "I've had to pick a really difficult decision to reprofile £400 million of spend from primary care, for mental health, from social care to put almost half a billion pounds on the table for a pay deal.
"I don't have more money. We've put almost half a billion pounds. Yes, we've waited it towards the lowest paid. I don't for a minute think that strikes are inevitable.
"We will be getting back around the table not just with the RCN but with the other health trade unions. I do believe in having spoken to the RCN, as I have over the course of the last seven days, I believe trade unions also think that a strike is not inevitable.
"We will have to negotiate, we can look at the redistribution of that £480 million, but the UK Government have got a moral obligation to give us more money given that they are the architects of this cost crisis."
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