“real sprint” will be necessary for the winter to protect the NHS of the combined threat of seasonal flu, Covid-19 and the cost of living crisis, Health Secretary said.
Steve Barclay warned that hospitals face “very serious challenges” ahead of an expected influx of patients and the health system cannot afford to Government to follow the case.
Barclay told The Telegraph: “We have very real challenges on the track in the autumn and winter, and as far as I’m concerned there needs to be a real sprint within Whitehall, and especially in the Ministry of Healthto be ready for September.
Especially in areas with a long lead time, there is now an urgency to prepare. The decisions need to be made now, not wait until the fall – by then those lead times would push the resolution too late
“Part of my role is to prepare for reasonable worst-case scenarios. Obviously, that pressure can take different forms. You could get a severe flu, Covid rates could be higher than we would expect or like.
“Preparation is now urgent, especially in areas with long lead times. The decisions need to be made now, not wait until the fall — by then those lead times would push the resolution too late.”
His comments come amid new concerns about a staffing crisis in the NHS, with an analysis of staff figures showing the health service may be becoming too reliant on recruits from abroad.
Figures from NHS Digital show that the proportion of healthcare workers recruited from abroad nearly doubled between 2014 and 2021, according to an analysis by the BBC.
According to the broadcaster, 34% of doctors who joined health services in 2021 came from abroad – up from 18% in 2014.
The BBC also found that the share of UK doctors joining the health service had fallen from 69% in 2015 to 58% last year, while the share of new UK nurses fell from 74% to 61% over the same period.
Meanwhile, the proportion of doctors recruited from outside the UK and the EU increased from 18% to 34% and the proportion of nurses from 7% to 34%.
Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, called for “urgent action” by the government to address “long-term chronic staff shortages”.
He said: “While there is also a focus on growth and retention of the domestic workforce, we cannot escape the fact that there are 105,000 vacancies in the NHS and 165,000 vacancies in social care.
“We need urgent action and the new Prime Minister must commit to publishing a fully budgeted and funded staffing plan to address chronic staff shortages in the longer term.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health said: “We continue to grow the NHS workforce that delivers the quantity and quality of healthcare that the government has promised. There are over 4,300 doctors and 10,200 more nurses working in the NHS compared to last year, and we are on track to deliver 50,000 additional nurses by 2024
“We are boosting our own recruitment – including opening five new medical schools and providing a 25% increase in funding for medical school positions over three years through 2020, with the first graduates of this cohort completing basic training this year.
“Internationally trained staff have been part of the NHS since its inception and they continue to play a vital role in helping us to overcome the Covid backlog. We recently signed bilateral agreements with countries such as India, the Philippines, Kenya, Malaysia and Sri Lanka to support the recruitment and training of nurses.”