VACANCY rates for both doctors and nurses have reached their highest level since 2007, according to official figures.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman criticised the “appalling” threat posed to the NHS by a No-Deal Brexit.

The figures show the NHS in Scotland is short of more than 4000 nursing and midwifery staff and more than 500 consultants.

At the end of June 2019 there were 140,327 whole-time equivalent (WTE) workers employed in the health service – with this total having risen for the last seven years.

But the statistics also revealed 513 WTE medical and dental consultant posts were vacant.

A total of 265 WTE consultant posts have been lying empty for six months or more, with the overall vacancy rate reaching 8.8% in June – up from 7.6% the previous year and the highest since September 2007.

The vacancy rate for nurses and midwives meanwhile increased to 6.3%, compared to 5.3% in June 2018, with this also the highest since September 2007.

Freeman said in the NHS “staffing has risen by almost 10% under this Government to historically high levels and is projected to continue to rise in the coming years”.

Simon Barker, the chairman of BMA Scotland’s consultants committee, suggested the government needed to “get real” about the vacancies.

He said: “We need serious steps in Scotland to make working as a doctor an appealing career choice and show doctors they are valued.

“That means focused efforts on recruitment and retention, improved work-life balance, and reversing years of real-term pay cuts.

“The Scottish Government has instead chosen to rely on temporary and more expensive locum staff to plug gaps and shore up services.

“This is not a sustainable model for our NHS and it does not serve the people of Scotland well.

“I appeal to Scottish ministers to take this matter seriously, to address it urgently, before it’s too late.”

Freeman said: “NHS staffing has risen by almost 10% under this government to historically high levels and is projected to continue to rise in the coming years.

“Our NHS is built on the dedication and hard work of healthcare staff up and down the country.

“We recently passed our new safe staffing legislation to help plan and recruit our workforce to meet the changing health and care needs of the people of Scotland long into the future.

“We’ve supported this by increasing training places for medical students and for nursing students.”

She added: “In contrast to the actions of the UK Government for the health service in England, we’ve protected free nursing and free midwifery tuition and not only kept their bursary but we are increasing it to £10,000 from next year.”

“We’re doing all we can to try and mitigate the appalling impact that a No-Deal Brexit poses to recruitment to our health and care services, and as a consequence the impact on people who rely on those services.

“Only yesterday the BMA described a No-Deal Brexit as having ‘catastrophic consequences’, it’s far past time that the UK Government categorically ruled it out – not least for the sake of our NHS and patients.”

Meanwhile, the number of people who were delayed in leaving hospital has risen in Scotland, according to official figures.

Statistics published by ISD Scotland show a total of 1511 people were delayed at the July census point – a rise of 6% on the same period last year. Of those, 1249 were delayed for more than three days.

Health and social care reasons accounted for 945 delays (76%), 274 delays (22%) were for complex needs, while patient and family-related reasons made up 30 delays (2%).

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said: “We are allocating more than £700 million to support social care and integration in 2019-20, helping to reduce delays in the system.”