Enough to fill ten hospitals: 100,000 NHS jobs vacant

THE Health Service is ‘dangerously’ understaffed with one in 12 posts unfilled, experts have warned.

Almost 100,000 jobs are vacant – enough to staff ten large hospitals.

A report by the watchdog NHS Improvement also found that hospitals and other trusts were almost £1.3billion in the red.

This deficit is far worse than planned for, and has been partly blamed on hospitals having to spend so much money hiring expensive agency staff.

The report found that a record 5.5million patients visited A&E units in the three months to December. It showed that 97,453 posts are vacant in hospitals, ambulance services and other trusts, or 8.4 per cent of the total. They include 35,835 nursing posts (one in ten) and 9,676 doctor posts (8 per cent).

Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust think-tank, said the figures highlighted a ‘dangerous shortage of nurses’ and a ‘worrying picture’ for doctors at a time of unprecedented demand.