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The number of NHS Scotland consultant posts vacant for over six months has risen by almost a quarter in the last year, according to official figures.

The NHS Scotland workforce report shows there are 422 unfilled posts across the country.

More than half of those have remained vacant for more than six months.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said NHS Scotland's workforce had increased to "historically high levels" under the current government.

The specialism with the highest numbers of vacancies is radiology, where 80% of vacancies have now been unfilled for more than half a year.

The difficulty of attracting specialist staff to rural areas is also reflected.

In NHS Dumfries and Galloway all vacant consultant posts have been unfilled for more than six months.

Doctors' unions have warned of the additional pressure the vacancies put on staff in an already stretched service.

'Unprecedented levels'

Simon Barker, the chairman of BMA Scotland's consultants committee, said: "The lack of substantive progress that is being made in filling these vacancies and ensuring that Scotland's NHS has the staff it needs is increasingly concerning.

"Every post in the NHS that lies empty makes it more difficult to deliver high quality care to patients and adds to the pressure facing staff left covering the gap created by the vacancy.

"Demands on the NHS are already at unprecedented levels and the struggles it is facing are only made worse by not having the medical staff in place that the NHS knows is required."

Dr Grant Baxter, from the Royal College of Radiologists, said the figures highlighted the "desperate situation" in clinical radiology.

"Chronic under-investment in the specialty over many years, coupled with increasing demand for life-saving scans and interventional radiology techniques, are putting Scotland's radiologist doctors under immense strain.

"If the situation continues unaddressed our health service will collapse, patients will suffer and the much-lauded government ambition to improve cancer outcomes in Scotland will never be achieved and may potentially worsen."

Agency staff

Ms Robison said NHS Scotland's workforce had increased by more than 10% under the current government and by almost 500 in the past year.

"To help meet the demands the NHS faces we're putting record investment into our health service and legislating to ensure we have the right staff with the right skills in the right place," she said.

"Spending on agency staff fell by 7% over the last year and we have been clear with boards that they should only use an agency as a last resort when temporary staff are required."

Ms Robison added that NHS Improvement reported last week that nursing vacancies stood at 10.2% in England, compared with 4.5% in Scotland.