Staff shortages ‘risk NHS care and safety’

PATIENT SAFETY and quality of care are at risk due to a workforce gap in the NHS, health leaders have said.

Workforce concerns have become the “single biggest risk facing services”, according to NHS Providers, a membership body which represents health service organisations.

The gap between the number of staff NHS bodies need and the number they are able to recruit and retain is now unsustainable, according to the latest report.

This is putting patients at risk and could undermine plans to transform the health service, it said.

“The NHS... is struggling to cope with growing and changing pressures. We have now reached a tipping point: workforce concerns have become the single biggest risk facing services,” the report states.

“The gap between the workforce that providers need and the staff they are able to recruit and retain is now unsustainable, putting patient safety and quality of care at risk. It may also undermine much-needed schemes to transform and modernise services.”

The authors said that the workforce gap has almost certainly widened since Health Education England reported a staffing shortfall of 5.9 per cent or 50,000 clinical staff in 2014.

Staff shortages have already led to closures of some services and put extra pressure on existing staff, the report added. “The workforce gap is most obvious in respect of clinical staff, resulting in closures of some services, for example A&E and children’s services, restricted opening hours for others, and pressure on staff required to put in extra hours as they seek to maintain quality of care,” the authors said.