For the last three years, the Health Foundation has published a report into NHS workforce trends and it’s always an insightful assessment of where we really are with employment issues within the UK healthcare market.

The most recent report published last year was no exception and it raised some important issues that can no longer be ignored. In recent years the report has been highlighting an ‘impending’ employment issue but in actual fact, it’s a very real problem ‘now’ and unless it’s tackled, it’s going to get worse.

To save you ploughing through a rather lengthy report we’ve pulled out the eight key highlights with a set of easily digestible facts and figures. But be under no illusion, making them easy to digest doesn’t make them easy to solve.

1. In the last year, the number of NHS employees has increased modestly by 18,500 to over 1 million people, yet NHS vacancies stand at over 100,000.
2. Out of the 18,500 new employees just over half of them were professionally qualified clinic staff but this included ambulance, scientific, therapeutic and technical staff. In terms of traditional front line services the number of nurses has increased by just 0.5%, which is nowhere near enough.
3. Although the overall number of doctors has grown, the number of GP’s has fallen by 1.6%.
4. Although there has been a modest growth in the number of nurses, there are still 41,000 registered nursing vacancies within the NHS which represents more than 1 in 10 posts across the country.
5. The Government has committed to increasing the number of nurses in training yet for the second year running the number of applications and acceptances for pre-registration nursing degrees in England fell. Funding and a dip in the population of 18-year-olds is largely to blame.
6. This issue is compounded by a worrying attrition rate where nursing students are either not graduating within the expected timeframe or not graduating at all. The report suggests that nearly one quarter of all nursing students don’t complete the courses as expected.
7. The international recruitment of nurses is an important part of the solution but uncertainties surrounding Brexit have hampered this progress. Recruitment from outside the EU remains a vital element but a more cohesive and ‘joined-up’ strategy from the Government and its’ various departments is required.
8. Staff retention needs to be a priority as there has been no improvement over the last year, in fact it has worsened steadily since 2011/12. Community Trusts saw an average of 1 in 5 staff leaving their roles over the course of the year 2017/18.

In summary, this report highlights a series of worrying trends which unless tackled by the Government over a sustained period of time, will undoubtedly create a deepening catastrophe for the country.

Naturally at My Healthcare Recruit we feel that the international recruitment of nurses is a solution to the problem but if we’re being honest, it’s only one of the solutions needed.