Exclusive:'Marathon' Scottish NHS shifts revealed, including 19-hour days
The Scottish Conservatives called the figures ‘shocking’
SNP ministers have been accused of running the NHS into the ground after it emerged frontline staff have been forced to work "marathon" shifts.
Freedom of information (FOI) responses show 19-hour days have been recorded by employees in NHS Lothian, Grampian and Ayrshire and Arran, while staff members at other health boards also clocked long hours.
Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Dr Sandesh Gulhane, whose party uncovered the figures, said such long shifts were unsafe for staff and dangerous for patients.
He said: “SNP ministers have run our NHS into ground – leaving frontline staff with no choice but to work marathon shifts to help their patients.
“Their commitment is extraordinary, but no one should be working 19-hour days. It’s unsafe for staff and dangerous for patients. And with some health boards failing to respond, the scale of the problem is likely to be even greater.
“These shocking figures lays bare the SNP’s woefully inadequate workforce planning. Their sticking plaster policies just aren’t working.
“Enough is enough. [Health Secretary] Neil Gray needs to back the Scottish Conservatives’ common sense plans to cut bloated management and ensure that resources get to the front line where they are needed the most.”
NHS Grampian said the longest shift worked in 2024 was 19 hours by an employee in "nursing/midwifery". The longest shift so far this year has been 15 and a half hours, again in nursing/midwifery.
Meanwhile, in NHS Lothian, a forensic medical examiner worked a 19-hour shift this year, and in Ayrshire and Arran a 19-hour shift was put down to an “escort outwith board area”.
Highland recorded a shift lasting 18.98 hours, although the health board said this had a “five-hour (300 minutes) break also”.
In Dumfries and Galloway, a nurse transferring a patient from the Royal Infirmary to Glasgow worked 18 hours and 25 minutes, including breaks of 97 minutes.
In the Borders, the longest shift worked in 2024 was 17 and a half hours.
“This was a single incident involving a staff nurse who was covering for short-notice sickness absence of colleagues and high level of service demand,” the health board explained in its FOI response.
“This is an atypical event which does not happen often and was in response to a need to prioritise patient safety, when other options were limited. Line managers are always attentive to the need to balance patient safety and staff wellbeing.”
Several health boards did not provide figures, with the Tories raising concerns some shifts could have been even longer.
Last week, it emerged more than 20,000 health service employees took time off work due to mental health in 2024/25. The British Medical Association (BMA) Scotland blamed increasing workloads for the number of absences.
Elsewhere, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has warned a “crisis” in Scotland’s accident and emergency departments is leaving staff “facing violence and aggression” from patients.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We recognise the tremendous pressures staff have been working under and are extremely grateful for their continued efforts in the face of sustained demand. We are in close contact with boards to ensure staff are not regularly working past their contracted hours and that long shifts like these remain rare occurrences.
"Through record levels of investment, we have delivered 13 consecutive years of workforce growth, including a 57.2 per cent rise in medical staff since September 2006, and an 18.6 per cent rise in nursing and midwifery staff.
“We will be implementing the remaining one hour reduction in the working week, taking full-time agenda for change staff to a 36 hour week from April 2026. It is important this change is delivered in a way that is safe for patients and staff, supports continued recovery of services and avoids any extra burden for our workforce.”
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