Health and Social Care Provision
Staffing
In 2024:
- NHS Shetland employed 870 people, across all its services, which equated to 699.1 whole-time equivalent (WTE) posts
- Shetland’s 10 GP surgeries employed 26 General Practitioners (GPs) and 33 Nurses, equating to 10.4 GP and 13.3 Nurse WTE posts
- Per 10,000 patients Shetland GP surgeries employed 4.5 WTE GPs, which was lower than the Scottish average of 5.8 WTE, and the second lowest of the 14 Scottish health board regions
- 95.4% of the 10.4 GP WTE posts in 2024 were being filled by locum cover, which was significantly higher than the Scottish average of 10.1%, and by far the highest of the 14 scottish health board regions
Hospital activity
Gilbert Bain Hospital is Shetland’s only hospital. Located in Lerwick, in 2023/24, the hospital undertook 4,336 inpatient episodes and 13,412 outpatient attendances.
Social care
In 2023/24 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
- 477 care at home clients
- 674 homes connected to the community alarm system
- 29,460 meals delivered