A new report by MPs has warned that the NHS in England is facing its worst staffing crisis in history, with unfilled job vacancies posing a serious risk to patient safety. The cross-party Health and Social Care Committee found that England is currently short of 12,000 hospital doctors and more than 50,000 nurses and midwives.
The report, chaired by former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, said that a reluctance to decisively plug the staffing gap could threaten plans to tackle the Covid treatment backlog. Hunt described tackling the shortage as a 'top priority' for the new prime minister, who will take over in September.
The committee saw evidence that on current projections, almost a million new jobs will need to be filled in health and social care by the early part of the next decade. This is to keep up with rising demand as the population ages and healthcare becomes more complex.
The report also highlighted high rates of harassment and abuse in the NHS, with 28% of staff experiencing at least one incident of bullying in the last twelve months. It described NHS pension arrangements that encourage senior doctors to retire or reduce hours as a 'national scandal'.
Conditions in social care were described as 'regrettably worse', with 95% of care providers struggling to hire staff and 75% finding it difficult to retain workers. The report called for better pay, training, and professional development structures in the sector.
The government responded by stating that the workforce is growing and that NHS England is drawing up long-term plans to recruit more staff. However, Labour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting accused the government of having 'utterly failed' to address the crisis.
