LOCAL NEWS JULY 23

Soaring Skye health agency costs revealed as £1.5 million spent in last year

A freedom of information by island group SOS-NHS Skye has revealed that close to a £1 million has been spent on agency staff at the island’s Home Farm nursing in the past year.

The FOI raised by the Skye pressure group show that £981,000 was spent on agency staff at the island capital home in 2023/24, a rise of more than £400,000 in the past two years.

Meanwhile, the figures showed that £70,000 has been spent of agency staff at Portree Hospital this year compared with £300.00 two years ago, while the figures for Broadford Hospital for this year stand at more than £500,000, while the corresponding figure was £28,000 in 2021/22.

Broadford Hospital 

   £515,083.34 – [2023/24]
£83,645.56 – [2022/23]
£28,161.17 – [2021/22]

Portree Hospital

£70,007.99 – [2023/24]
£64,140.40 – [2022/23]
£304.24 – [2021/22]

Home Farm

 £981,212.59 – [2023/24]
£722,698.82 – [2022/23]
£554,626.96 – [2021/22]

Radio Skye has contacted NHS Highland to determine the reasons for the rises, as well as how many vacancies there are currently across the three locations and how many posts are currently been advertised.

In response, a spokesperson for NHS Highland said that staff shortages were one of the challenges faced across the NHS and they are working hard to fill permanent positions as well as ensuring they have temporary and agency resource available to cover gaps.

The added that they do not have a budget for locum/agency spend, and that there priority focus is on budget pressures associated with high use and cost of supplementary staffing associated with vacancies within its workforce.

They went on to state that it was challenging to recruit in remote and rural locations, particularly those communities with a high volume of tourists, and stressed that there was an ongoing recruitment campaign which has successfully filled a number of hard-to-recruit posts, and where possible permanent or temporary employees have been used who are more familiar with the NHS Highland settings and processes than agency or locum staff.

The spokesperson concluded by saying: “It’s important to note that whatever basis of employment, all of our colleagues have the required skills, experience, qualifications and training for the role they are filling.”

Police appeal launched following Uig break-in

Police officers in Skye are investigating following a housebreaking at an address in Uig on the evening of 14/15th July 2024.

A flat bed truck was seen near the address around 1130pm.

Officers are requesting the public’s assistance with any CCTV or dashcam footage which may assist in their enquiry.

Anyone with information which may assist in the investigation is asked to contact 101 quoting incident number 1339 of 15th July 2024.

Ready, Steady, Go for new Skye board!

The first game of the Go of is set to take place today on a newly installed board at Somerled Square in Portree

Go is an abstract strategy game where two players compete for territory on a board using a set of black or white stones, the game originated in China around 2,500 years ago.

Until 2020, Skye was home to a bi-annual Go Tournament that outperformed the Scottish national tournament for attendance, and featured on BBC’s An Là.

At 3pm today (Tuesday) Carel Goodier and Jurriaan Dijkman will play the first Go game  on the newly installed outdoor Go board on Somerled Square just opposite the Granary.

Skye’s Millar stars for Scotland under-17s

Skye’s Archie Millar scored four points as Scotland recorded a 24points to 17 win against Dublin GAA in the first win of their tour of Ireland.

Millar is one two Skye players in the squad alongside Seonaidh Alex MacLeod MacLeod, while Kinlochshiel are represented by Calum MacMillan and Kieran Martin.

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