The Health Service Journal reported yesterday that:
NHS England has told many trusts and systems they are not allowed to increase their staffing establishment in the next 12 months.
This is quite extraordinary.
The NHS is in crisis.
There are massive waiting lists.
There are at least 10% staff vacancies.
Stress levels amongst those working for the NHS are through the roof.
But the NHS is being told by the government not to recruit any more staff.
It is as if the government does not want to sort problems in the NHS.
One might almost think they want another major medical crisis within it, directly caused by understaffing.
It's even plausible that ministers might be indifferent to the suffering of those in the NHS and amongst those it serves.
And all this is because very obviously balancing the books is much more important than doing anything to help real people live their lives as well as possible.
There are moments when swearing is virtually all we can do. But I will restarting myself. What the flip is going on here? If this is not the sign of a broken society, what is?
And I will repeat, yet again, that the money could be found.That means that this imposition of hardship is entirely by choice.
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Those trusts can still fill the vacancies that they have.
So it’s not quite what you imply.
It is a net cap
The NHS can still recruit new staff.
Only if someone has left
I’m not sure that balancing the books is the objective, although that is in keeping with the Tory (and now, Labour) narrative on public spending. In the case of the NHS, I suspect such moves reflect an active desire to run the NHS down to justify further journeying along the road to complete privatisation.
Every Doctor seems to have considerable data on parliamentarians with private healthcare interests – surely they should disqualify themselves from voting –
https://www.everydoctor.org.uk/map-of-nhs-privatisation
This needs to be more well known.
Broken society?
I don’t know about that – it’s definitely a broken system deliberately broken by shameless politicians who specialise in hopelessness.
Much of society is calling out for better than we are seeing currently. This is political failure and political failure only in my view.
We have been ill-served.
A twitter thread by junior doctor, @felicitydevere, a few days ago highlighted some damning data. NHS England is short of approximately 1400 anesthetists, as per the Royal College of Anesthetists (RCoA). Yet 350 anesthetists in stage 1 training have been informed that they will not be progressing to stage 2. 300 places for further training, but 650 applicants. Think about what this means for the individual doctor as well as the NHS. This is not the only bottleneck in the NHS. Her twitter thread makes for infuriating reading.
https://twitter.com/felicitydevere/status/1648316027879538689
As an aside, my son, a junior doctor in emergency medicine, has not decided what discipline to specialise in, though his number one choice is currently anesthetics. He’s off to Australia this year, having been offered two emergency medicine posts following online interviews (he has a choice to make). The Aussie (and Kiwi) terms and conditions of service, as well as the working and living environments are hugely attractive compared to England (I can’t comment on the other NHS systems in the UK as I am well out of touch. Medical staff may have different experiences in those systems). It may not be a permanent move, which will depend on whether he can secure a training post, but I can’t see the Aussies plundering the English NHS to fill their shortfalls without making a long term career attractive. He studied in Ireland and did his first foundation year in an Irish hospital, followed by employment in NHS England from 2021. While there are frustrations working in the Irish system, his experience suggests that it is a whole lot better than working here.
Thanks