Health and Social Care Provision
Staffing
In 2025:
- NHS Shetland employed 890 people, across all its services, which equated to 721.1 whole-time equivalent (WTE) posts
- Shetland’s 10 GP surgeries employed 24 General Practitioners (GPs) and 40 Nurses, equating to 20.3 GP and 28.2 Nurse WTE posts
- Per 10,000 patients Shetland GP surgeries employed 8.6 WTE GPs, which was higher than the Scottish average of 5.9 WTE
- 22.2% of the 8.6 GP WTE posts in 2025 were being filled by locum cover, which was higher than the Scottish average of 7.2%, and the highest of the 14 Scottish health board regions
Hospital activity
Gilbert Bain Hospital is Shetland’s only hospital. Located in Lerwick, in 2024/25, the hospital undertook 3,843 inpatient episodes and 10,901 outpatient attendances.
Social care
In 2024/25 there were:
- 9 elderly care homes with capacity for 147 residential and 98 day care places for older people
- 40 supported living placements and 77 day care places for adults with learning disabilities
- 12 places in children’s and young people’s residential care
- 5 respite care places for mentally/physically disabled children
- 474 care at home clients
- 622 homes connected to the community alarm system
- 29,787 meals delivered