The “biggest workforce crisis” in NHS history is putting patients and staff at “serious risk”, MPs have said in a damning new report.
The study says there is a shortage of 12,000 hospital doctors and more than 50,000 nurses and midwives, and that the government has “no credible plan” to improve the situation.
It warns that maternity services are “under unsustainable pressure” – there were 552 midwives left in the last year alone – and there are 700 fewer full-time equivalent GPs than three years ago.
Produced by MPs on the cross-party Health and Social Care Committee, the report pulls no punches when it comes to targeting the government over the growing crisis.
Projections suggest that 475,000 additional health jobs and 490,000 additional social care jobs will be needed at the start of the next decade in order to ease the strain.
But the report said: “In the face of this, the government has shown a marked reluctance to act decisively.
“The workforce plan promised in the spring has not yet been released and will be a ‘framework’ without numbers, which we are told could follow in another report later this year.”
MPs said that while some progress had been made towards the target of recruiting 50,000 nurses, the Government had to fall short of the target of recruiting 6,000 more GPs as promised in the manifesto Conservative Party
“Persistent understaffing in the NHS now poses a serious risk to staff and patient safety, both for routine and emergency care,” the report said. “It also costs more, as patients present with a more serious illness later.
“But the most depressing thing for many on the front lines is the absence of any credible strategy to address this.”
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He said that as a result of the pressure on staff, the NHS was losing millions of full-time equivalent days to staff sickness caused by anxiety, stress and depression.
“The result is that many in a depleted workforce are considering leaving, and if they do, the pressure will increase further on their colleagues,” the study said, adding that some simple things are not in their place, such as access to hot food and drink in shifts and flexible working.
MPs said the government’s “refusal” to release workforce planning data “means the basic question every health and care worker is asking: are we training enough staff to meet patient needs? will remain no answer”.
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1:51 The pressure on the NHS is getting worse
Assessment of government progress? “Inappropriate”
More needs to be done with social worker pay to stop people leaving, he added.
A separate report by the committee’s independent expert group describes the government’s overall progress in meeting key commitments it has made on the workforce as “inadequate”.
Steven McIntosh, chief executive of advocacy and communications at Macmillan, the cancer support charity, said Sky News’ chronic staffing problems also had serious implications for cancer diagnosis and treatment.
He said: “Three million people are currently living with cancer. By 2030, this will rise to four million.
“We don’t have the NHS staff needed to treat and diagnose people now.
Image: Steven McIntosh says unless ministers get a handle on staffing issues, cancer care and treatment will be severely affected
“Unless the government tackles this long-term staff shortage, none of us will be able to access the timely cancer care and treatment we need, when we need it.”
The chairman of the Health and Social Care Committee and Tory MP Jeremy Hunt said the country was facing “the biggest ever employment crisis in the NHS and social care”.
He added: “NHS professionals know there is no silver bullet to solve this problem, but we should at least give them the comfort that there is a plan. This must be a top priority for the new Prime Minister.” .
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Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, part of the NHS Confederation, said tens of thousands of staff vacancies “at the last count” and “a depleted workforce, represent one of the biggest challenges for the recovery of the economy and the return of safe and quality health services for all.”
He said health leaders were “beyond concerned” by the government’s “continued reluctance to act decisively on health and social care staff”, which he said posed a “serious risk to both staff and for patient safety”.
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2:10 Care crisis: “I’m afraid of getting old”
Ministers should be ‘shocked into action’
Patricia Marquis, director of the Royal College of Nursing in England, said the report’s findings of a serious risk to staff and patient safety “should shock ministers into action”.
He added that the committee had also said in terms of pay, it was “unacceptable that some NHS nurses are struggling to feed their families, pay their rent and travel to work”.
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care has insisted that the workforce is “growing” with “more than 4,000 more doctors and 9,600 more nurses compared to last year, and more than 1,400 more general practitioners compared to March 2019” .
The statement added that a £95m recruitment drive has been made for maternity services and £500m is being provided to “develop our valuable social care workforce, including through training opportunities and new career paths”.
A long-term workforce plan to recruit and support NHS staff had been commissioned, he said.