Warning on NHS staffing levels

The NHS urgently needs billions of pounds of extra investment to shore up staff numbers and head off a haemorrhaging of doctors, nurses and other frontline health workers, warn organisations representing the workforce and employing organisations.

The NHS Confederation, NHS Providers, British Medical Association, Royal College of Nursing, Academy of Royal Medical Colleges and public sector union UNISON have jointly written to prime minister Boris Johnson warning of the “very real risk” that if NHS staff leave, a vicious circle will be created where “staff vacancies are the greatest threat to the retention of NHS staff”.

The six organisations are calling on the government to take rapid and speedy action “to address the chronic undersupply of NHS staff.”

They say extra funding is needed to ensure staff can deliver and do more for patients as well as covering the additional workforce costs created by the fallout from COVID-19. This includes the national vaccination programme and the growing demand for support and treatment for patients with long COVID.

The representative bodies say additional investment in workforce capacity is imperative to tackle the huge and ballooning elective care backlog — currently standing at 4.7 million.

Increasing staff numbers will also help beef up mental health services.

Here, it has been predicted, up to 10 million people — almost a fifth of the entire population — will need either new or additional mental health support as a direct result of the crisis and the consequent economic downturn.