Figures have revealed that hospitals in Scotland are short of more than 1600 nurses since 2007. The Scottish Tories have said that the growing gap is attributable to long waiting times and harrowing conditions of patients in the hospitals. Proper care is not being provided to the patients because there are not enough nurses and other hospital staff to ensure safety and standard care of patients.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw MSP said: "We urged the Scottish Government months ago to address the issue of vacancies, yet the problem has only worsened. At a time when so many people are struggling to get jobs, why is the NHS in Scotland not filling 1,600 vacancies?"

Theresa Fyffe, Scotland director of the Royal College of Nursing, said that some health boards have realized the sufferings of patients connected to lack of nursing staff and they have increased the staff in recent years. However, there are many health boards across Scotland that need to improve health services by increasing their nursing staff.

Latest workforce data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre, a statutory statistics agency, has revealed that since May 2010, there has been a big decline in the numbers of qualified nurses, midwives and health visitors.