Bullseye wrote:
The biggest positive impact you could have on the NHS would be to fill all the existing vacancies for frontline patient facing posts and then recruit additional staff for the most under pressure services (this is all of them but some are in a more dire state than others).
The difficulty you have at the moment with filling these vacancies is that they require staff that are trained to a high standard. They’re not only nurses but specialists too like radiographers, OTs, physios etc. Then there’s the medics. There’s a real shortage of trained pharmacists, doctors consultants, psychologists etc. If one leaves it’s a huge challenge to recruit someone else. The kind of people that want these jobs are pretty special. They take years to train. They need to be paid better and as country we need to make training for these roles much easier so they aren’t dissuaded by student loans, ridiculously long hours, physical or verbal abuse. The removal of busaries has had a massive effect on nurse recruitment. If we want a decent NHS then we have to be prepared to pay for it. I’ve worked in it for a while and the past 8 years have seen huge cuts. My trust has cut over £3m from its budget in the past 3 years. This has had a big knock on effect on patients. The experienced staff are retiring and their posts are remaining vacant.
There simply aren’t any more efficiency services left.
One fairly simple solution, although the training takes time, would be to make every medical degree/ training course free, thereby encouraging a greater take-up from students who "dont really know what they want to do" and then of course, reward the personnel properly once they have qualified.
I konw it will blow the minds of some but, perhaps schools and colleges should be trying to guide youngsters into careesr where there are greater opportunities / vaccancies.
We live in a free world (nearly) and it's great that kids have a choice of what thet want to pursue after leaving but, where there are gaping holes in the workforce, there should be some additional "help" for those willing to train.
