THE welfare of NHS staff must be a priority for MSPs after May’s election, Scotland’s doctors said on Wednesday night.

The British Medical Association (BMA) Scotland warned during the launch of its manifesto that praise for front-line workers will be “empty words” without improvements to the service. 

It demanded that the “obsession with blanket and arbitrary targets” be scrapped in favour of a focus on patient outcomes.

BMA Scotland chairman Lewis Morrison said that the NHS’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic “must be synonymous with staff recovery,” warning that doctors’ opinions of politicians “are at a very low ebb.”

He cited a BMA Scotland survey that found almost two-thirds of doctors do not feel politicians value them.

Dr Morrison wrote in the manifesto: “For years before Covid-19, the health service in Scotland has endured under-resourcing, understaffing and underfunding.

“Throughout the pandemic we have heard, on an almost daily basis, tributes paid to staff working in the NHS on the front line of the fight against Covid-19.

“We have now reached the time to prove to doctors and all other NHS workers that those weren’t just hollow gestures or empty words. Because at the moment doctors’ views of those who run our health service are at a very low ebb.”

The manifesto also calls for a less politicised debate about the health service and its funding.

Dr Morrison added: “We have to be honest about the challenges, realistic about our needs and wants, and consider how much, as a nation, we are prepared to invest in our health and care services.”

Speaking yesterday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said that recognising the toll the pandemic has taken on NHS staff is central to her party’s plans for the service.