NHS cuts red tape to speed recruitment

CHANGES to the way consultants are hired by the NHS will cut the red tape that has dogged the appointment process since 1948, the Scottish Government said yesterday.

Regulations that took effect yesterday will put external advisers on appointment panels, and will enable health boards to use modern recruitment methods such as profiling and aptitude tests, it said.

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said it was the most radical overhaul of the consultant appointment process since the creation of the NHS.

She said: "It takes six months on average to fill a consultant position. Meantime, hospitals use expensive locum cover.

"Both health boards and the medical profession are keen to see this modernised."