Alarm at ‘dire’ shortage of NHS family doctors
STAFF numbers in critical areas of the NHS are “failing to keep pace with demand”, a damning report warns today.
While the number of hospitalbased doctors grew slightly in the year to September 2018, the number of GPs fell by 1.6 per cent, according to experts at the Health Foundation.
Nursing numbers grew by just 0.5 per cent and there are now over
41,000 nursing vacancies – more than one in 10 nursing posts.
Anita Charlesworth, Health Foundation director of research and economics, said staff shortages were a serious threat to the success of the NHS’s long-term vision for community-based care.
She said: “More care outside of hospitals is central to the NHS Long Term Plan, but the health service faces an uphill struggle.
“If it can’t recruit and retain more healthcare professionals in primary, mental health and community care, this will continue to be an unrealised aspiration. There is unfortunately no sign that the long-term downward trend for key staff groups, most notably GPs, will be reversed.” The number of NHS staff saw “a modest increase” of 1.8 per cent in the year to July.
But the 18,570 people recruited into full-time roles in this period will do little to plug the gap of 100,000 vacancies reported by trusts in England.
The report also warned that the fall in GP numbers means the health service is “moving ever further away from the government’s target of 5,000 additional doctors in general practice by 2020”. As many as 450 GPs left their positions between September 2017 and September 2018. The NHS plans to recruit more than 20,000 new staff to support GP practices over the next five years.
But Professor Helen StokesLampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said more GPs must be recruited to lead these teams.
She said: “This report highlights the dire straits the general practice workforce is in and hammers home how much we need to increase the numbers of family doctors in the NHS.
“The NHS long-term plan has some commendable aspirations.
“And it also recognises the importance of a robust general practice service in keeping the NHS sustainable, but we need the workforce to be able to deliver it.”
The report comes as the Government today launches a drive to recruit thousands of adult social care staff. Ansari, of the Centre for Ageing Better, which commissioned the research, said: “Falls are not an inevitable part of ageing.
“If we can enable and encourage more people to take up activities to boost their strength and balance, there is potential to make savings to health and social care.”