NHS Scotland spent a total of £175.7 million on nursing and midwifery bank and agency staff during the latest financial year, an increase of 5.5% compared to 2016/2017, according to data from Scotland’s Information Services Division.

The £175.7 million figure is a record high for NHS Scotland and is £9.2 million more than what was spent on 2016/2017 for bank and agency nurses.

The majority of this spend was on bank staff (£152.1 million, an increase of 7.1% on the previous year) with the remaining spend on agency staff (£23.6 million, down 3.6% on the previous year).

Data from the ISD also showed that 7.5% of medical and dental consultant posts were vacant. This means there were 422 unfilled posts across the country. More than half of those have remained vacant for more than six months, an increase of 23.7% compared to 2016/2017.

Similar to last year, 2,812 nursing and midwifery posts were vacant, and the vacancy rate is unchanged at 4.5%. Of these vacancies, 852 were vacant for more than three months, a 27.1% increase on last year.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said NHS Scotland's workforce had increased to "historically high levels" under the current government.

“To help meet the demands the NHS faces we're putting record investment into our health service and legislating to ensure we have the right staff with the right skills in the right place,” Robinson said.

Robinson added that they have “made it clear with boards that they should only use an agency as a last resort when temporary staff are required.”