Appeal made to government health supremo over staffing levels at Paisley's A&E department

A battling Paisley politician has written to the Scottish Government’s health supremo to highlight the plight of Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital.MSP Neil Bibby also blasted Holyrood’s approach to the concerns of patients and staff.He took action after internal whistle-blowers revealed that staffing at the RAH is so short, workers are regularly being redeployed from Inverclyde’s hospital to plug gaps.The politician has urged Scottish Health Secretary Humza Yousaf to reveal whether it is “now government policy”, to shift staff between hospitals rather than “solving” the issue.Don't miss the latest headlines from around Renfrewshire.

Sign up to our newsletters here.In a letter to Holyrood health supremo Mr Yousaf, seen by the Express, Labour’s West Scotland MSP Neil told the minister: “Concerned staff have contacted me because of their regular redeployment from the Inverclyde Royal Hospital to the RAH.“I understand that the health board needs to manage the resources it has and that does involve shifting staff from time to time.

The worry, however, is that this is happening to too many staff and too regularly. And crucially, this is not a long term solution.”He also outlined further concerns, saying: “It appears that instead of solving the issue of staff and resource shortage, the approach is to shift it between hospitals so what is the government doing to fill vacancies at both the Inverclyde Royal Hospital and the Royal Alexandra Hospital?”It comes after we first revealed last October that union leaders at the RAH were warning of “chronic” staff shortages hitting services and repeated the warning in January.Mr Yousaf visited the hospital in March to speak to union leaders, managers and staff in a bid to iron out issues.