The challenges facing the NHS in addressing increasingly concerning staff shortages nationally are well known and laid out starkly in last year’s NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
At the time of its publication in June, it highlighted 112,000 local vacancies. Increasing need from an aging population and exhausted professionals leaving for jobs with better pay or fewer demands are among the reasons the problem has grown.
The report also issued stark warnings of a staff shortfall of between 260,000 and 360,000 by 2036/37 if measures aren’t made to bolster workforce numbers in critical areas.
The plan identified increased education and training to “record levels” and ambitions for upscaling apprenticeships among the key drivers in tackling the problem.
