The Government and national leaders need a radical new approach to inspire an NHS workforce that is too often stressed, stretched and disaffected, according to a new report published by the Health Foundation.
The report coincided with the release of the Health and Social Care Information Centre’s latest workforce census revealing significant ongoing problems in the supply of NHS nurses.
With an increase of less than 1% in nursing staff over the last year, supply continues to be out of kilter with demand. There is currently an estimated shortfall of 7% in the number of nurses. The Health Foundation says that these problems are “symptomatic of a short-sighted approach to NHS workforce planning in England, which has exacerbated current financial challenges and fails to recruit and retain the people needed to care for our ageing population.”
The report, Fit for Purpose? provides an overview of NHS workforce policy in England and calls for an overhaul in how the NHS plans, trains, regulates, pays and, most importantly, supports its people. It highlights the lack of a nationally shared vision for the NHS workforce in England, around which the array of national bodies can coalesce. Crucially it concludes that when the future of the health service depends on new ways of delivering care, too much workforce policy continues to happen nationally, crowding out local employers’ interests and restricting their ability to innovate.
The report recommends that the Government and national leaders across health and social care should come together urgently to develop a long-term vision for the NHS workforce in England. The early priorities of this strategy, should include: a review of medical education to ensure that the billions of pounds spent each year are training doctors with the skills and attitudes needed for the future NHS; the effective development and sustainable implementation of new roles to support high value care; and understanding why England continues to be beset with staff shortages and what needs to be done to address this for the long term.
The Health Foundation’s report concludes that a more fundamental shift is needed if the NHS is going to inspire its workforce to make the improvements in quality and productivity that are vital to the future of the health service.
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