A freedom of information request by the party also showed that more than 34,000 nursing shifts were covered by agency staff between December 2022 and February 2023.

The Scottish Government has spent £26 million within three months on agency workers to cover workforce gaps in the NHS, according to figures obtained by Scottish Labour.

A freedom of information request by the party also showed that more than 34,000 nursing shifts were covered by agency staff between December 2022 and February 2023.

The statistics showed that NHS Lothian paid out over £6million to agencies over the three-month period. NHS Highland spent over £3million, while NHS Fife spent £2.8million.

NHS Lanarkshire paid out £5.8million on agency staff in just December and January.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde had the most nursing shifts covered, with 8,638. This was followed by NHS Forth Valley which had 5,368. NHS Lanarkshire had 4,894 and NHS Lothian had 4,865.

Want to see more SNP fails? – Education Matters