• The King’s Fund, the Health Foundation and the Nuffield Trust have released a briefing on the healthcare workforce, which warns that critical and lasting staffing shortages mean that the long-term plan risks becoming an unachievable ‘wish list’ of initiatives.
• The briefing says that if unaddressed, these shortages could lead to growing waiting lists, deteriorating care quality and the risk that some of the money pledged at the Budget will go unspent.
• It predicts an increase in staff shortages from over 100,000 at present to almost 250,000 by 2030, meaning that one in six health service posts may be unfulfilled.
• The three organisations warn that these shortages could be over 350,000 if the NHS continues to lose staff and cannot attract skilled workers from abroad.

Responding to The health care workforce in England: make or break? published by The King’s Fund, the Health Foundation and the Nuffield Trust, the deputy chief executive at NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery said:

“Workforce challenges are now the number one concern for NHS trusts, as we highlighted in our report There for us: A better future for the NHS workforce.

“This report by the three health think tanks is a stark warning that we will not meet the ambitions of the long-term plan for the NHS unless we act immediately to address the challenges we face in recruiting and retaining the skilled staff that we need within health and care services.

We now need more immediate actions to ensure staff feel valued, stay within the NHS and to ensure we can continue to recruit internationally following Brexit.

   

“Although there has been much discussion centred around long-term solutions and the need to address the lack of national workforce planning through the highly anticipated workforce strategy, we now need more immediate actions to ensure staff feel valued, stay within the NHS and to ensure we can continue to recruit internationally following Brexit.

“Rising demand for services against years of pay restraint has played a part in chipping away at staff morale. We need to continue to work hard to ensure the NHS and social care is seen as a great place to work by supporting new ways of working, routes into training and improving work-life balance.

We need to continue to work hard to ensure the NHS and social care is seen as a great place to work by supporting new ways of working, routes into training and improving work-life balance.

   

“Alongside a credible and realistic workforce strategy, it is vital that we see investment in education and clinical training places which does not sit within the funding settlement for the NHS yet will be crucial to the success of NHS long-term plan.”