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Showing results for tags 'Workforce management'.
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News Article
NHS in Wales and GPs face collapse, BMA union says
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
GP services "will collapse in Wales and the NHS will follow" soon after unless urgent support is provided, the British Medical Association (BMA) has warned. As patient levels rise, numbers of GP surgeries and doctors are falling amid inadequate resources and unsustainable workloads, BMA Cymru Wales has claimed. It has written to the Welsh government, urging more funding and staff help. The Welsh government said it was acting to cut pressure on GPs and increasing services by community pharmacists. Launching its Save Our Surgeries campaign, the BMA said the number of GP practices in Wales had decreased by 18% in the past decade from 470 to 386. Read full story Source: BBC News, 28 June 2023 -
Content ArticleThis report assesses why NHS hospitals are failing to deliver higher activity despite higher spending on the service and higher levels of staffing over the last couple of years. It argues that politicians need to urgently focus on capital investment, staff retention and boosting management capacity, and sets out key questions for policy makers to address if they want to solve the NHS crisis. The NHS has been on a longer-term negative trajectory: most of the challenges identified in the report existed before the pandemic and have been exacerbated since.
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News Article
UK risks becoming reliant on overseas care workers, report warns
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The UK risks becoming highly reliant on overseas care workers after nearly 58,000 visas were issued for the sector last year, a report says. Analysis by the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford found that the demand for foreign staff had left the NHS and care homes open to “vulnerabilities” including “exposure to international competition for health workers and risks of exploitation”. The study, commissioned by the employment group ReWAGE, also examined where care workers were coming from. In 2022, 99% of care workers sponsored for work visas in the UK were from non-EU countries. The top countries were India (33%), Zimbabwe (16%), Nigeria (15%) and the Philippines (11%). Dr Madeleine Sumption, the director of the Migration Observatory, said: “Health and care employers have benefited a lot from international recruitment. “But relying this much on overseas recruits also brings risks. For example, care workers on temporary visas are vulnerable to exploitation and the rapid growth in overseas recruitments makes monitoring pay and conditions a real challenge.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 27 June 2023 -
Content Article
This is part of our series of Patient Safety Spotlight interviews, where we talk to people working for patient safety about their role and what motivates them. Dan talks to us about how his experiences as a paediatrician and military doctor have influenced his view of patient safety. He also describes the increasing complexity in healthcare systems and highlights the need for the Government to commit policy and resources to building and sustaining the NHS workforce. -
Content ArticleThis improvement plan sets out targeted actions to address the prejudice and discrimination – direct and indirect – that exists through behaviour, policies, practices and cultures against certain groups and individuals across the NHS workforce. It has been co-produced through engagement with staff networks and senior leaders.
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Content ArticleThe King's Fund compared the healthcare systems in different countries by doing three things: Reviewed the research literature and assessed previous attempts to rank and compare health care systems. Interviewed academic experts in international health care policy and experts who had extensive knowledge of the UK, German and Singaporean healthcare systems. Analysed the latest quantitative performance data for the UK health care system and the health systems of 18 higher-income peer countries. They analysed data in three main domains: the context the health system operates in (eg, the health status and behaviours of the population) the resources a health system has (eg, levels of staffing, equipment and health care spending) how well the health care systems uses its resources and what it achieves as a result (eg, measures of efficiency in delivering services, quality of care, financial protection from the costs of ill health, and health care outcomes).
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Content ArticleThis is the 15th annual clinical radiology census report by The Royal College of Radiologists. The census received a 100% response rate, meaning this report presents a comprehensive picture of the clinical radiology workforce in the UK as it stood in October 2022. Key findings The workforce is not keeping pace with demand for services. In 2022, the clinical radiology workforce grew by just 3%. In comparison, demand for diagnostic activity is rising by over 5% annually, and by around 4% for interventional radiology services. The UK now has a 29% shortfall of clinical radiologists, which will rise to 40% in five years without action. By 2027, an additional 3,365 clinical radiologists will be needed to keep up with demand for services. This will have an inevitable impact on the quality-of-care consultants are able to provide. Only 24% of clinical directors believe they had sufficient radiologists to deliver safe and effective patient care. Interventional radiologists are still limited with the care they can provide. Nearly half (48%) of trusts and health boards have inadequate IR services, and only 1/3 (34%) of clinical directors felt they had enough interventional radiologists to deliver safe and effective patient care. Stress and burnout are increasingly common among healthcare professionals, risking an exodus of experienced staff. 100% of clinical directors (CDs) are concerned about staff morale and burnout in their department. 76% of consultants (WTE) who left in 2022 were under 60. We are seeing increasing trends that the workforce is simply not able to manage the increase in demand for services. 99% of departments were unable to manage their reporting demand without incurring additional costs. Across the UK, health systems spent £223 million on managing excess reporting demand in 2022, equivalent to 2,309 full-time consultant positions.
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Content Articlehe NHS needs every one of its 1.4 million staff, but nobody is perfect every day of their career. Human factors have a huge impact on staff and patients. After witnessing poor behaviour in the workplace, co-workers are less effective and patients have worse outcomes. An unpleasant working culture also reduces camaraderie in teams and can lead to resignations. This is a vicious cycle of overwork and burnout that the NHS can’t afford. We need to nurture our workforce. In this BMJ opinion article, Scarlett McNally suggests focusing on three areas: expecting a minimum standard of behaviour at all times rather than perfectionism; identifying when intense focus is needed; and building effective teams. The minimum standard should be an expectation of “respect” at all times.
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News ArticleJunior doctors could indefinitely withdraw labor, and strike for three days a month until next year, the medics’ union leaders have warned. Hundreds of junior doctors gathered outside the largest NHS conference of the year, NHS Confedexpo, on Thursday chanting “pay us fair, pay right, we don’t want to have to strike”. The British Medical Association’s junior doctor committee co-chair Dr Rob Laurenson warned junior doctors may next escalate strike action in an “indefinite withdrawal of labour”. NHS England boss Amanda Pritchard said the strike is a “serious risk to patient safety” and industrial action “creates risk and upheaval”. She said tens of thousands of appointments will be affected. Read full story Source: The Independent, 15 June 2023
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Content ArticleThe government has published its mandate to NHS England. This mandate is intended to apply from 15 June 2023 until a new mandate is published. NHS England has a duty to seek to achieve the objectives in the mandate. The Secretary of State keeps progress against the mandate under review, setting out his views in an annual assessment which is laid in Parliament and published. The government will agree with NHS England how it should report on overall progress against the mandate to support the Secretary of State in keeping this under review. This will include reporting at agreed intervals on other delivery expectations listed beneath the objectives.
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Content ArticleGaslighting at work can take many forms and is often subtle, causing the victim to question their perception. This blog gives some examples of gaslighting at work and suggests ways to deal with it if you believe you are experiencing gaslighting from a colleague.
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Content ArticleHuge issues are facing the UK’s medical workforce: angst among staff, battles for training opportunities, a lack of basic amenities, discrimination, shortages of posts, roles with no career progression, and a failure to support workers asking for pay reviews. In this BMJ opinion piece, Partha Kar says we need fresh leadership to lead basic changes with support from the royal colleges and unions, and other external organisations need to step up now.
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Content ArticleThis editorial in The Guardian looks at the Government's approach to relieving pressure on GPs, which involves diverting patients to other areas of primary care, including pharmacies. The article highlights potential risks and issues associated with the approach, including the workforce issues currently facing community pharmacy and the comparative lack of standards and regulations for pharmacies. It argues that the Government's approach simply moves the issue to other areas of the healthcare system, rather than dealing with the root cause of the issue facing GP surgeries—retention and recruitment.
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Content ArticleAppeals to give better resources to the NHS ‘front line’ are problematic when they divert attention away from more serious issues, especially when spending on more staff comes at the price of investing in other areas where the money may have a greater impact, emphasises Steve Black in this article published by HSJ.
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News Article
NHS productivity lags as recruitment fails to keep pace with demand
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The NHS in England faces an uphill struggle to improve productivity as it confronts record waiting lists, with data suggesting that an increase in staff numbers alone will not transform its performance. Creaking infrastructure, a sicker population and a reliance on less experienced staff are hampering the health service’s attempts to treat people in greater numbers than before the pandemic, according to health experts. This difficult context is casting a shadow over the government’s goal that hospital waiting lists should be falling by the next election. Read full story (paywalled) Source: Financial Times, 1 June 2023 -
News Article
NHSE expands overseas recruitment drive
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS England has expanded its drive to increase overseas recruitment, introducing funding for trusts to hire more types of health professionals from abroad. Employers are now able to use national NHS England funding to recruit physiotherapists, therapeutic radiographers and operating department practitioners from overseas. Until now, within allied health professionals, the scheme has only covered diagnostic radiographers, occupational therapists and podiatrists. None of the professions are on the government’s shortage occupation list. NHSE said it decided to expand the AHP scheme to more staff groups where it had decided there were NHS shortages, and others where it had identified there was global availability of staff. For example, it said other groups such as prosthetics professionals still could not be recruited from abroad as there is limited international supply. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 30 May 2023 -
News Article
NHS England workforce plan delayed amid rumours of cost issues
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
NHS leaders have raised concerns about the delay to the long-awaited workforce plan, after the health secretary, Steve Barclay, refused to give a deadline for its publication and with rumours suggesting it is considered too costly. The plan, which was expected to be published on Tuesday, appears to have been delayed, according to the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery. Barclay blamed the pandemic and “various things that have been happening in recent years” for the delay during broadcast interviews over the weekend. He had previously promised that the plan to increase the number of doctors and nurses would be published before the next general election. Cordery said the plan, which aims to fix the UK’s crumbling healthcare system by plugging chronic staff shortages but which has already been postponed from last year, was needed “as quickly as possible”. Until this weekend NHS Providers – which represents all England’s hospital, ambulance, community and mental health trusts – had believed publication of the plan was “imminent”. Cordery suggested that the failure to release it could be linked to the need for funding. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 29 May 2023 -
Content ArticleDespite steps towards closing the gap between mental and physical health services, many people still cannot access services and face long waits for treatment. Addressing workforce challenges in mental health services will be crucial to improving this situation. This report, commissioned and supported by NHS Confederation’s Mental Health Network, takes stock of progress across the country in staffing the single largest profession within the mental health workforce: nurses.
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News Article
Work pressures driving nurses and midwives away
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Work pressures are driving thousands of nurses and midwives a year away from the profession, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) says. The NMC said retention was becoming a major concern despite an overall growth in the register. Its annual report found 27,000 professionals had left the register in the UK in the year to the end of March. While retirement appeared to be the most common reason for leaving, health and exhaustion were cited as the next. NMC Chief Executive Andrea Sutcliffe said: "There are clear warnings workforce pressures are driving people away. "Many are leaving earlier than planned, because of burnout and exhaustion, lack of support from colleagues, concerns about quality of care and workload and staffing levels." Read full story Source: BBC News, 24 May 2023 -
News ArticleBritain’s reliance on foreign nurses has reached “unsustainable” levels, the government has been warned as new analysis reveals that international recruits has accounted for two thirds of the rise in numbers since 2019. Ministers have repeatedly promised to boost the domestic supply of health staff amid warnings that reliance on international workers leaves the NHS at the mercy of global labour markets. Overall, a fifth of the UK’s nursing, midwifery and nursing associate workforce originally trained overseas. The figures will reignite concerns that nations such as the Philippines, traditionally a key source for the NHS, are being increasingly targeted by countries including Germany and Canada. Senior NHS leaders fear the health service could be left in a precarious position if increased competition results in nurses choosing alternative destinations, resulting in a shortfall for the UK. The health service in England already has one post in ten vacant. Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 18 May 2023
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Content ArticleThis toolkit from NHS Employers aims to support the reduction in turnover of international staff in the NHS by improving their experience at work. It is hoped that this will then enable them to stay, thrive and build lasting careers in the NHS. It is for line managers and employers and should be used alongside the International Recruitment Toolkit and the Improving Staff Retention Guide to support your overall approach to recruiting and retaining international and domestic staff. The good practice principles and examples throughout can be applied to all professions.
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Content ArticleMany cross-sectional studies and reviews have demonstrated that higher registered nurse staffing levels are associated with better patient outcomes. The aim of this study was to identify and assess the evidence for an association between nurse staffing levels, including the composition of the nursing team, and patient outcomes in acute care settings from longitudinal studies.
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Content ArticleOn paper, a GP’s working schedule can look quite inviting: consulting for three and a half hours in the morning, with a coffee break in the middle, then a gap for lunch and home visits before a similar length afternoon surgery. However, this is rarely the reality for NHS GPs. In this BMJ opinion piece, GP Helen Salisbury talks about what working life is really like for GPs and highlights the mismatch between their scheduled hours and tasks and the reality, which often involves them doing much more. She highlights how the unrealistic demands GPs face have been exacerbated by a movement of work from secondary to primary care, and argues that this is contributing to the workforce crisis that general practice faces.
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Content ArticleThis is the first national ambulance volunteering strategy, produced by the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives. It recognises the important role volunteers play in the ambulance service and outlines a national approach to volunteering that will be adopted between January 2023 and May 2024. The strategy covers mission, vision, principles and measures of success.
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Content ArticleThe Bucharest Declaration is the outcome of a World Health Organization (WHO) high-level regional meeting on health and care workforce in Europe that took place in Bucharest 22-23 March 2023. It makes 11 statements relating to the workforce crisis facing countries across Europe about retention, recruitment and staff safety.
