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Found 210 results
  1. News Article
    The large number of unfilled NHS job vacancies is posing a serious risk to patient safety, a report by MPs says. It found England is now short of 12,000 hospital doctors and more than 50,000 nurses and midwives, calling this the worst workforce crisis in NHS history. It said a reluctance to decisively plug the staffing gap could threaten plans to tackle the Covid treatment backlog. The government said the workforce is growing and NHS England is drawing up long-term plans to recruit more staff. Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who chairs the Commons health and social care select committee that produced the report, said tackling the shortage must be a "top priority" for the new prime minister when they take over in September. "Persistent understaffing in the NHS poses a serious risk to staff and patient safety, a situation compounded by the absence of a long-term plan by the government to tackle it," he said. It said conditions were "regrettably worse" in social care, with 95% of care providers struggling to hire staff and 75% finding it difficult to retain existing workers. "Without the creation of meaningful professional development structures, and better contracts with improved pay and training, social care will remain a career of limited attraction, even when it is desperately needed," the report said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 25 July 2022
  2. Content Article
    Nursing workforce shortages are an issue of international concern, with the gap between demand for services and the limited numbers of nurses widening. Recruiting nurses internationally is one solution that is helping to bridge this gap in some health systems. This systematic review in the International Journal of Nursing Studies Advances aimed to explore the lived experiences of international nurses working and living in different countries globally. The authors identified factors that can help nurses from other countries to adapt culturally to the UK health system, and that may support retention of international staff. The authors found that in order to improve the long term retention of international nurses, cultural integration and language barriers should be sensitively managed to enable effective acculturation. Culturally sensitive leadership should also be promoted to ensure zero tolerance of inappropriate racist and discriminatory behaviours.
  3. Content Article
    Even before the pandemic struck, there was a shortage of nurses in the UK. In January 2020, a survey by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) found that almost three-quarters of nurses said the staffing level on their last shift was not sufficient to meet the needs of patients safely and effectively. Yet this month NHS England predicted that the government will not meet its manifesto pledge to boost the NHS’s nursing workforce by 50,000 by March 2024. The key reason? NHS workers are quitting in droves, citing burnout, fatigue and pay as factors. Filling these gaps are nurses from overseas. Recently released figures for 2021 and 2022 from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) show that record numbers of nurses trained overseas are coming to work in the UK – almost half of new registrations. The Guardian spoke to four of them about their experience working in the UK.
  4. Content Article
    The Framework for Involving Patients in Patient Safety (PSP) identifies the requirement for individual organisations to develop local approaches to recruiting, working with and supporting Patient Safety Partners based on the principles provided. As integrated care systems (ICSs) are established opportunities for recruiting PSPs at ICS level to work across the system are being locally considered at system level. A focus group was held in May 2022 with Patient Safety Specialists from both provider and commissioning organisations to discuss the benefits and risks of recruiting PSPs at both provider and system level. This presentation is intended to support organisations when determining the most appropriate approach for their needs. 
  5. News Article
    The shortage of GPs in England is set to become worse, with more than one in four posts predicted to be vacant within a decade, an analysis suggests. The Health Foundation study said the current 4,200 shortfall could rise to more than 10,000 by 2030-31. The think tank believes the government will struggle to increase the number of GPs, while demand will continue to rise - creating a bigger shortfall. The government has promised to recruit 6,000 extra GPs by 2024, but ministers have admitted they are struggling to achieve that. The analysis said the numbers entering the profession are on the rise, but this will be offset by GPs retiring or moving towards part-time working, according to current trends. The worst-case scenarios suggested more than half of GP posts could even be vacant. Anita Charlesworth, director of research at the Health Foundation, said: "It's sobering that over the next decade things are set to get worse, not better." "It's critical that government takes action to protect general practice and avoid it getting locked in a vicious cycle of rising workload driving staff to leave, in turn creating more pressure on remaining staff and fuelling even more departures." Prof Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said the predictions were "bleak" and the worst-case scenario would be a "disaster". "Our members have told us they lack the time to deliver the care that they want to deliver for patients - and that patients need," he said. Read full story Source: BBC News, 30 June 2022
  6. News Article
    Vulnerable patients cared for in secure mental health units across England could miss out on vital medications due to a shortage of learning disability nurses, the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) has warned. The report into medication omissions in learning disability secure units across the country highlights problems with retaining learning disability nurses, with the number recruited each year matching those leaving. Figures quoted in the report suggest the number of learning disability nurses in the NHS nearly halved from 5,500 in 2016 to 3,000 in 2020. The HSIB launched a national investigation after being alerted to the case of Luke, who spent time in NHS secure learning disability units but was not administered prescribed medication for diabetes and high cholesterol on several occasions. At Luke’s facility, which included low and medium secure wards, HSIB investigators considered that the quality and style of care provided to patients had been directly impacted by a lack of nurses with required skill sets. Findings from HSIB’s wider national investigation link a shortfall of learning disability nurses to instances of patients missing their medication, with the report’s authors describing a “system in which medicines omissions were too common and prevention, identification and escalation processes were not robust”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 23 June 2022
  7. News Article
    The NHS is facing a major exodus of doctors of ethnic minority backgrounds due to persistent levels of racism faced at a personal and institutional level, a ground breaking study has revealed. Nearly one third of doctors surveyed have considered leaving the NHS or have already left within the past two years due to race discrimination, with 42 per cent of Black and 41 per cent Asian doctors in particular having considered leaving or having left. The survey paints a picture of institutional barriers to career progression, dangerously low levels of reporting of racist incidents and a growing mental health burden on ethnic minority doctors. With more than 2,000 responses from doctors and medical students across the UK, the BMA – a professional association representing all doctors in the UK – believes that this survey is one of the largest of its kind to document the experience of racism in the medical profession and workplace. Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA chair of council, said: “The NHS was built on the principle of equality of care for patients whoever they are, but this report shows that the NHS is shamefully failing in this principle for its own doctors, with those from ethnic minorities reporting alarming levels of unfair treatment and racial inequality at work. Read full story Source: The Independent, 15 June 2022
  8. Content Article
    In October 2021 the government announced a review into leadership across health and social care, led by former Vice Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Gordon Messenger and supported by Dame Linda Pollard, Chair of Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust. The results of the review have now been published and recommendations made.
  9. Content Article
    This report considers the extent of the gap between the diversity in the workforce and local population of London, and that visible among NHS trust boards and senior management. It highlights the impact of this gap on the effectiveness of healthcare provision and patient experience, in light of research demonstrating that a diverse workforce in which all staff members’ contributions are valued is linked to good patient care.
  10. News Article
    More than 27,000 nurses and midwives quit the NHS last year, with many blaming job pressures, the Covid pandemic and poor patient care for their decision. The rise in staff leaving their posts across the UK – the first in four years – has prompted concern that frontline workers are under too much strain, especially with the NHS-wide shortage of nurses. New figures show the NHS is also becoming more reliant on nurses and midwives trained overseas as domestic recruitment remains stubbornly low. In a report on Wednesday, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) discloses that the numbers in both professions across the UK has risen to its highest level – 758,303. However, while 48,436 nurses and midwives joined its register, 27,133 stopped working last year – 25,219 nurses, 1,474 midwives and 304 who performed both roles. That was higher than the 23,934 who did so during 2020 after Covid struck, and 25,488 who left in 2019. Andrea Sutcliffe, the NMC’s chief executive, said that while the record number of nurses and midwives was good news, “a closer look at our data reveals some worrying signs”. She cited the large number of leavers and the fact that “those who left shared troubling stories about the pressure they’ve had to bear during the pandemic”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 18 May 2022
  11. News Article
    Hundreds of overseas-born trainee GPs are at risk of deportation because of “nonsensical” immigration rules, the profession’s leader has warned Priti Patel. The NHS risks losing much-needed family doctors unless visa regulations are overhauled to allow young medics to stay in Britain at the end of their GP training, Prof Martin Marshall said. Marshall, the chair of the Royal College of GPs, has written to Patel, the home secretary, demanding that she scrap “bureaucratic” hurdles affecting would-be GPs from abroad. He told the Guardian: “At a time when general practice is experiencing the most severe workload pressures it has ever known, it is nonsensical that the NHS is going to the expense of training hundreds of GPs each year who then face potential deportation by the Home Office because of an entirely avoidable visa issue. “We cannot afford to lose this expertise and willingness to work in the NHS, delivering care to patients, due to red tape.” The threat to foreign-born GP trainees has arisen because current immigration rules state that “international medical graduates” (IMGs) can be given indefinite leave to remain only after they have been in the country for five years, but GP training lasts for only three years. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 17 May 2022
  12. News Article
    Jeremy Hunt has been accused of ignoring serious NHS staff shortages for years and driving medics out of the profession while health secretary after he intervened this weekend to warn of a workforce crisis. Promoting his new book, 'Zero: Eliminating Unnecessary Deaths in a Post-Pandemic NHS', Hunt said tackling the “chronic failure of workforce planning” was the most important task in relieving pressure on frontline services. Now the chair of the health and social care committee, he said the situation was “very, very serious”, with doctors and nurses “run ragged by the intensity of work”. But his comments drew sharp criticism from healthcare staff, who said Hunt – the longest-serving health secretary in the 74-year history of the NHS – failed to take sufficient action to boost recruitment while in the top job between 2012 and 2018. Instead, critics said, his tenure saw health workers quit the NHS in droves for jobs abroad or new careers outside medicine. There are now 100,000 vacancies in the NHS, and the waiting list for treatment has soared to 6.4 million. “There’s an avalanche of pressure bearing down on the NHS. But for years Jeremy Hunt and other ministers ignored the staffing crisis,” said Sara Gorton, the head of health at Unison, the UK’s largest health union. “The pandemic has amplified the consequences of that failure. Experienced employees are leaving at faster rates than new ones can be recruited.” “Hunt has recently been an articulate analyst of current issues, particularly workforce shortages, but these haven’t come out of the blue,” said Dr Colin Hutchinson, the chair of Doctors for the NHS. “At the time he could have made the greatest impact, his response was muted. We have to ask: was the service people were receiving from the NHS better, or worse, at the end of his time in office? At the time when it most mattered, he was found wanting.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 15 May 2022
  13. News Article
    The United States could see a deficit of 200,000 to 450,000 registered nurses available for direct patient care by 2025, a 10 to 20% gap that places great demand on the nurse graduate pipeline over the next three years. The new estimates and analysis come from a McKinsey report published this week. The shortfall range of 200,000 to 450,000 holds if there are no changes in current care delivery models. The consulting firm estimates that for every 1% of nurses who leave direct patient care, the shortage worsens by about 30,000 nurses. To make up for the 10 to 20%, the United States would need to more than double the number of new graduates entering and staying in the nursing workforce every year for the next three years straight. For this to occur, the number of nurse educators would also need to increase. "Even if there was a huge increase in high school or college students seeking nursing careers, they would likely run into a block: There are not enough spots in nursing schools, and there are not enough educators, clinical rotation spots or mentors for the next generation of nurses," the analysis states. "Progress may depend on creating attractive situations for nurse educators, a role traditionally plagued with shortages." Read full story Source: Becker's Hospital Review, 12 May 2022
  14. Content Article
    Analysis suggests potential instability and workforce gaps in the US healthcare sector. A call to action for all stakeholders could help. COVID-19 has altered many US nurses’ career plans. Over the past two years, McKinsey has found that nurses consistently, and increasingly, report planning to leave the workforce at higher rates compared with the past decade. Even as COVID-19 cases fluctuate, US healthcare providers are still experiencing the workforce and operational challenges exacerbated by the pandemic. Patient demand is expected to rise, given the growing and aging population of the United States. Without addressing this potentially wider divide between patient demand and the clinical workforce, with a specific focus on nurses, the US health sector could face substantial repercussions. If no actions are taken, there will likely be more patients in the United States who will need care than nurses available to deliver it. This report from McKinsey& Company provides context for how COVID-19 changed the nursing workforce, the long-term implications for nurses and healthcare stakeholders, and actions to consider to increase the odds of closing the gap. In the last section, it highlights how healthcare providers, federal and state governments, the private sector, the nursing workforce, and broader society could encourage those who are training to be nurses.
  15. News Article
    A “shocking” number of nurses from overseas are winding up “in trouble” or sanctioned within their first few months of working in the UK partly because of a lack of induction and support, a conference has heard. The issue was raised during a panel session at the Unison health conference in April discussing the importance of ethical recruitment practices in nursing and midwifery. According to Unison, it is supporting “many” overseas nurses who have been “exploited, unfairly treated and subject to racism” since their move. Among the panel was Gamu Nyasoro, a clinical skills and simulation nurse manager in the NHS and an elected member of Unison’s nursing and midwifery occupational group committee. Ms Nyasoro, who is from Zimbabwe and has been working in the NHS for the past two decades, said she herself had been discriminated against and had faced several challenges during her migration. She raised concern that overseas nurses were not given enough information about how to live and work in the UK, including about how to access healthcare services themselves, or about country specific rules and regulations. There was also the issue that UK employers “don’t look at their skills beforehand”, which means nurses were being put in roles or areas they were not confident in. She cited examples of staff who had been specialising in neonatal services before moving, who were then being asked to work with older people, and those who had been practising as a midwife in their home nations and then being required to work in emergency departments in the UK. Read full story Source: Nursing Times, 28 April 2022
  16. Content Article
    Expanding workforce capacity, and allowing staff to recover, is going to be fundamental in achieving the ambitions set out in the elective recovery delivery plan. To help support, protect and retain staff, this letter from NHS England details a number of high impact enablers that providers should consider implementing to help improve staff experience. It also sets out a number actions being taken forward at a national level with the aim of making the workload more sustainable for staff.
  17. News Article
    NHS bosses in England are urging hospitals to offer staff more overtime and tempt retired employees back, to help tackle waiting lists. A letter sent by NHS England said tackling the backlog that had grown during the pandemic would require a "number of high impact actions". And many hospitals were already taking innovative approaches to the issue. More than six million people are on waiting lists for treatment such as knee and hip surgery. According to the General Medical Council, 21,000 doctors are due to retire in September. And part of the plan would be to tempt some of those back by offering part-time opportunities to: train students run virtual consultations help with follow-up check-ups. Other measures recommended by NHS England are: removing caps on consultant hours - in some places senior doctors are limited to 40 hours a week - to offer extra shifts where safe offering more bank shifts - overtime opportunities for trust rather than agency staff increasing the use of NHS reservists - members of the public who have signed up to work for the NHS for at least 30 days a year - to help run wards, feed patients and provide support for the Covid-vaccination programme exploring taking simple procedures, such as cataract surgery, out of operating theatres and into other parts of the hospital. Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 May 2022
  18. Content Article
    Although compensation increases have played a key role in retaining and recruiting healthcare employees amid a major workforce shortage, perks such as mental health services and education financial assistance have also helped meet staff needs. Six health system CEOs and CFOs share with Becker's Hospital Review their best tips for retention and recruitment that go beyond compensation:
  19. News Article
    Ms. Martinez is a midwifery student in Tulancingo, Mexico, working in an underserved community. “There is a health care house, but there are no permanent staff,” she explained. “In my community there are many youth pregnancies, and there are no dedicated health staff who could care for women or take care of teenagers.” This shortage is partly due to a widely held misconception that midwifery is an antiquated profession, she indicated. “I met with doctors and nurses who questioned me: Why was I studying this midwife career? They didn't see room for that.” Thursday is the International Day of the Midwife, a moment to recognise the enormous contributions of midwives to health care around the world. “Not only do their capable hands bring new life into the world, they are champions of sexual and reproductive health and rights, providing voluntary contraception and other essential services, while supporting childbearing women emotionally,” said Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA’s Executive Director, in her statement marking the day. Yet continued lack of recognition hinders not only the success of midwives but also the health and well-being of whole societies. “We will not achieve universal health coverage without them,” said Dr. Kanem, “or realize our aspirations to reduce maternal and newborn deaths, as agreed in the Sustainable Development Goals.” Read full story Source: United Nations Population Fund, 4 May 2022
  20. News Article
    A ‘significant flurry’ of senior doctors will look to retire after a trust rejected a scheme designed to avoid higher taxes on their pensions, according to internal emails. Emails from senior doctors suggest Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust has rejected proposals to introduce “pension recycling”, a scheme endorsed nationally to avoid the tax rules. Government policy changes in 2016 reduced tax relief on higher earners’ pension contributions. This has discouraged clinical consultants from taking on extra shifts, and in some cases, prompted people to retire earlier than planned. Last month, NHS England’s chief executive Amanda Pritchard suggested this was a continuing problem for hospitals as they seek to increase elective activity. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 29 April 2022
  21. News Article
    An NHS mental health trust that has been the worst performing in England has been warned it must improve after failing another inspection. Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has been rated "inadequate" in the latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) report. The CQC said it had served the trust with a warning notice that it had to act on to improve patient care. The trust has been rated "inadequate" on three previous occasions by the health watchdog, as well as being the only one currently within the NHS's improvement regime for not meeting standards. Following the latest inspection, its overall rating was downgraded from "requires improvement" - and three out of five measures assessed by the CQC, for safety, leadership and effectiveness, met its lowest grading. The report said two wards were immediately closed to new patients following a CQC visit in November, after the trust was threatened with enforcement action if urgent measures were not taken. Significant staffing problems, including an annual nurse vacancy rate of more than 17%, were also highlighted. Staff at an adult long stay ward did not complete regular checks on patients supposed to happen every 30 to 60 minutes, which meant they were unaware if somebody needed help for periods of up to seven hours. Inspectors also said there had been a severe deterioration on the trust's inpatient ward for children and young people - the Dragonfly Unit in Carlton Colville, Suffolk. They found it was reliant on agency workers and lacked a permanent doctor. Read full story Source: BBC News, 27 April 2022
  22. News Article
    The Health and Social Care Committee examines the Government’s progress against its pledges on the health and social care workforce and will be the focus of a new independent evaluation by the Health and Social Care Committee’s Expert Panel. Professor Dame Jane Dacre, Chair of the Expert Panel, said: “We’ll be looking at commitments the Government has made on workforce – the people who deliver the health and social care services we rely on. “We’ve identified a recurrent theme in our evaluations to date – whether in maternity, cancer or mental health services, progress is dependent on having the right number of skilled staff in the right place at the right time. Shortages have a real impact on the delivery of services and undermine achievements. “Our panel of experts will evaluate progress made to meet policy pledges in this crucial area - whether it’s about getting workforce planning right, training, or ensuring staff well-being.” The Expert Panel will focus on three areas: Planning for the workforce – including how targets are set, recruitment, and retention. Building a skilled workforce – including incorporating technology and professional development of staff. Wellbeing at work – including support services for staff, and reducing bullying rates. Four specialists have been appointed for this evaluation, bringing their subject specific expertise and experience. They will work alongside the core members of the Expert Panel in identifying a set of Government commitments on workforce and evaluate progress made against them. The findings will support the work of the Health and Social Care Committee which is carrying out a separate inquiry: Workforce: recruitment, training and retention in health and social care. Read full story Source: UK Parliament, 20 April 2022
  23. News Article
    Despite workforce being the biggest challenge facing the health service, the Health and Care Bill provides no clarity on the numbers of staff this country needs, says Andrew Goddard in a HSJ article. The Health and Care Bill returned to the Commons this week – as did the question of workforce planning. At the end of the spring term, MPs voted to reject an amendment to the bill which would have required the secretary of state to publish independent assessments of current and future workforce numbers every few years. The following week, the House of Lords – led by Baroness Cumberlege, with support from Baroness Harding, Lord Stevens of Birmingham and other cross-party peers – voted to put a revised version of the amendment back in. This particular game of ping pong about how we should plan the NHS and social care workforce is an important one. Workforce is not only a blindspot in the bill – it is a blindspot in the government’s ambitions for health and care. A lack of staff risks undermining the true potential of the Health and Social Care Levy because there will be too few staff to carry out the additional checks and diagnostic procedures promised. The new diagnostic hubs are to be staffed with existing NHS colleagues. Workforce shortages hampered our response to the pandemic and are already having a significant impact on our response to the backlog. They were also identified in the Ockenden Report as a driving factor in the avoidable deaths of 201 babies. It is concerning then, that despite workforce being the biggest challenge facing the health service, the Health and Care Bill provides no clarity on the numbers of staff this country needs. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 22 April 2022
  24. News Article
    NHS bosses have written to hospitals telling them to stop using language that implies a bias against caesarean sections when advertising jobs in maternity services. A recent report into an NHS maternity scandal found that a focus on “normal birth” had played a key role in babies dying or being born disabled. Women at the Shrewsbury and Telford trust were forced to undergo traumatic natural births when they should have been offered surgical intervention. However, even since its publication, trusts have published job adverts looking for a member of staff “to help us promote normality” or saying that they are “proud of our commitment to normal birth”. In a letter sent, Dr Matthew Jolly, NHS clinical director for maternity, and Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, chief midwifery officer, ask maternity services “to review the language that they are using about their services, in job adverts, and any other information designed to support decision-making on pregnancy and birth choices”. The letter continues: “There have been a number of concerns raised about the language used in some NHS trust maternity service job adverts and materials — phrases that suggest bias toward one mode of birth. “The NHS has a duty to provide safe and personalised care to women and families according to best practice guidance informed by evidence and the changes that are taking place in society, midwifery, maternity, and neonatal care services. “It is a fundamental requirement of a maternity multidisciplinary team to inform and listen to every woman, respect their views and help them to try and achieve the type of birth they aspire to.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 15 April 2022
  25. News Article
    There has been a dramatic fall in morale among midwives across multiple measures within the NHS staff survey. Although general morale deteriorated among most staffing groups in 2021, the results for midwives across numerous key measures have worsened to a far greater degree than average. It comes amid the final Ockenden report into the maternity care scandal at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust, which raised serious concerns about short staffing and people wanting to leave the profession. The survey results, published on 31 March, suggest 52% of midwives are thinking about leaving their organisation, up 16 percentage points on the previous year. In comparison, the number of general nurses thinking of leaving was 33%, up just 5 percentage points. Chris Graham, chief executive of healthcare charity the Picker Institute, which coordinates the staff survey, described the midwifery profession as an “outlier” in the 2021 results, in terms of how their experiences compare to other groups and how their responses have changed over time. “Not only do midwives report worse experiences in many areas, but there is evidence of particularly sharp declines in some key measures,” Mr Graham said. “It appears likely that staffing shortages are a major factor here.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 13 April 2022
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