Staff shortages in the NHS now outweigh fears over funding, according to a new survey of trust leaders. The study, claimed to be the largest ever of chairs and chief executives in England, has revealed growing concern over a "workforce gap". Of the 238 NHS trusts contacted over half responded to the survey. The figures show that only one in four trust leaders (27%) are confident they currently have the right staff numbers and skill mix to deliver high quality healthcare. In addition to that just one in five (22%) are confident about having the right staffing levels in six months' time. Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers which carried out the survey, said: "We are in the middle of the longest and deepest financial squeeze in NHS history with four years of much lower funding increases on the horizon and no plan on how to cope with them. "We also have a series of workforce challenges we are struggling to meet. We need greater honesty and realism about what can be delivered for the funding and staff capacity that is available. "We need a smaller set of key priorities, more support for staff, and a better relationship between trusts, the Government and its arms length bodies to develop solutions to these challenges." The "State of the Provider Sector" report also gives examples of where trusts are improving quality of care. It includes reducing last year's record £2.45bn deficit to £669m and cutting agency spending by a quarter. Staff shortages are being addressed by overseas recruitment, developing new roles and using technology to roster staff more effectively. Comments from trust leaders in the survey, however, included "Brexit has caused drying up of recruitment from the rest of Europe" and "there are simply not enough high quality staff in the country to cover some specialities". At South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust innovative ways of joined up working are said to be helping to ease pressure on doctors and nurses. A programme called "Discharge to Assess" is said to be making services more efficient and freeing up beds. Cristina Ramos, a GP and associate medical director for the trust, says the NHS needs to think of new ways of working to help deliver better care. She said: "In the past we have had to open extra capacity beds and open extra wards while often staffing those with locum nurses and doctors because we haven't been able to meet the demands of our population in any other way. "By putting in place these measures like using our community hospitals and our 'D2A' pathways (it) has meant that we have been able to move patients through our system much more efficiently." With recruitment of medical staff a priority for hospitals and NHS services, what may also prove challenging subsequently is retention. Dr Jamie Wilson worked in the NHS for 15 years but left to set up his own healthcare service because he felt disillusioned. He told Sky News: "The thing that most people find very difficult... was that working within a huge bureaucracy and that was a very difficult experience in many ways. "Where things were slow to change, you often saw things that weren't working or that seemed wrong in some way and you couldn't really do much to change that. "It also felt increasingly during the 10 years or so I was there, there was a failure really to embrace new technologies as the internet seemed to be changing everything around us it would seem that that was slow to be changing the healthcare system." A Department of Health spokesman said: "As this report acknowledges, the NHS is treating a record number of patients and is making clear progress to balance the books - achievements that wouldn't be possible without our dedicated workforce. "There are more than 25,800 extra clinical staff on our wards, almost 2,300 more paramedics in our ambulance services and nearly 40% more district nurse training places available since 2010."
Fears about staff shortages now outweigh those about funding, according to a survey of 238 trust leaders, with 27% confident that they have enough staff to deliver quality healthcare. Only 22% believe they will have the adequate staffing levels needed in six months’ time. The report found that staff shortages are being handled by recruiting overseas and utilising technology to make rosters more effective.