COMMENT: From Chief Medical Officer for Scotland Catherine Calderwood

AS well as being Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, I still see pregnant women in an antenatal clinic in Edinburgh in my “other” role as an obstetrician.

I have been fortunate to care for EU nationals who have chosen to make Scotland their home and grow their families here. I’ve been literally at the receiving end of many new EU citizens coming into the world.

Scotland is lucky in having a fantastically rich and varied NHS workforce, with around one in 20 of NHS Scotland’s doctors coming from elsewhere in the EU.

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There are thousands of EU nationals helping run our NHS at all levels – dedicated, hardworking people that we need and want to keep here in Scotland.

I have, both during my training and in my career as a doctor, worked alongside many EU nationals. They, like the rest of our NHS workforce, exhibited tremendous skills and enthusiasm for the profession and often brought learning and skills to us from their practice from elsewhere.

For example, one of the most inspiring obstetricians in the UK is Professor Kypros Nicolaides, who is from Greece and currently works in King’s College Hospital in London. He has made an amazing difference to how we practise in obstetrics, including scanning and surgery on babies in the womb, and is world-renowned. He helped us to improve the screening service in Scotland in the past few years. There are many obstetricians from Greece who have come to work here because of his world-leading results.

Scotland, and our NHS, is an attractive place to work. The free movement of workers that membership of the single market gives us is key to attracting talented and caring professionals to make our country their home and to establish and develop their careers here. We know we face some challenges in recruitment in health and social care – I recently helped with a campaign to promote doctors to come and live and work in Scotland – and so it’s vital for Scotland’s NHS that we don’t lose that benefit of being members of the single market of recruiting EU staff freely.

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As well as healthcare professionals, we want to attract students who will be the workforce and academics of tomorrow here. That’s why the Scottish Government’s commitment to tuition fee funding to support EU students studying here will extend to those starting next year in 2017/18 is so welcome. Of course we want them to stay that way. That’s why I hope there will be reassurance for existing and incoming EU students and staff there will be no change to their rights to live and study here.

As well as the health sector, EU nationals are also employed widely in the social care sector helping us to manage the pressures of the changing demographics of an increasingly older population in Scotland. The integration of health and care is about supporting older people living longer and with complex needs in their own communities. EU nationals are playing a hugely important role in our ambitious programme of integration and making a difference to thousands of people’s lives every day. 

As a doctor I know my medical and nursing and allied health professional colleagues welcome the focus on treating people in the community, before they ever reach a hospital and a crisis intervention. Doctors and many other health professionals across Scotland and beyond have welcomed my “Realistic Medicine” approach, which is about thinking about the best treatment with the people we care for – often that is best dealt with in the community so people can continue to live life as they want to.

I hope arrangements put in place through the EU for social protection – including health and safety and equality and diversity in the workplace – are protected despite Brexit. 

Also vital are family friendly and parental rights assured by the EU – which if lost would impact upon NHS Scotland and the wider health and social care sector; and their ability to recruit and retail staff. It is important for the future of the health service that we are able to offer continued protection of workers’ rights, and wider human rights.

I am hopeful the many people from Europe I have encountered during my career either in the workforce, the people we treat and those in training will be allowed to continue to make Scotland’s health care system a success.

For those thinking of coming to Scotland I welcome them and hope they too can play their part in making Scotland a great place to live and work improving life for people and their families within our NHS.

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As a place to train, live, work, raise a family and practise I can testify personally to it being one of the best places in the world.