No organisation operates without knowing its workforce needs, but the government is keeping the health service in the dark
Last week, the delivery plan for tackling the Covid-19 backlog of elective care was published with a clear recognition that “to succeed we have to grow and support our workforce”. While the number of patients waiting for care has risen to 6 million, we mustn’t forget that this figure was an eye-watering 4.4 million before the pandemic had even begun. We in the NHS have long known that staffing numbers have been the limiting factor in keeping up with ever-growing patient need and demand.
The NHS’s own estimates suggest it has 100,000 vacancies, including about 8,000 medical and 40,000 nursing professionals. The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has been reporting that almost half of advertised consultant vacancies go unfilled for years, with the rate of unfilled posts in 2020 at its highest level in almost a decade.
