23.05.12
NHS training report demands urgency
Government plans to reform education, training and workforce planning in the NHS are “complex, inflexible and unfair” and could risk patient safety, according to the Commons Health Select Committee.
In a new report, the committee says there is a “lack of urgency” in dealing with the problems, and that the current proposals risk staff confusion.
New organisations Health Education England, Local Education and Training Boards (LETBs) and the Centre for Workforce Intelligence will take responsibility for the £5bn training budget from next April, and the committee of MPs is calling for further, detailed information about how they will work together in the new system.
Key recommendations include compulsory regulation of healthcare assistants, a levy for paying training providers, more work to meet junior doctors’ training needs and an aim to avoid over-reliance on locum and agency staff.
Committee chair and former health secretary Stephen Dorrell MP said: “Current education and training arrangements are complex, inflexible and unfair. This complexity makes it more difficult to change the way care is delivered and respond to the needs of patients; the NHS needs much more effective arrangements for planning and training its future workforce.
“We are concerned about this apparent lack of urgency and we believe that failure to address these issues quickly will lead to risk for patients and confusion for staff.”
Chair of the GMC, Professor Sir Peter Rubin, welcomed the report’s recognition of the need for further clarity and said: “Ensuring students and junior doctors are getting high quality education and training is an important part of our statutory role in protecting patients and promoting proper standards of care.”
Dean Royles, director of the NHS Employers organisation, said: “Rather than focusing overly on the traditional staffing groups, we need to make sure the whole NHS workforce is fit for purpose.” He called for national investment for the support workforce.
RCP president Sir Richard Thompson corroborated the need to improve national workforce planning, saying: “[We need] to have not just enough doctors to treat the growing numbers of acute medical patients, but the right doctors in the right places to ensure high standards of care for patients everywhere.”
Sally Taber, director of Independent Healthcare Advisory Service, said it is “imperative” that the independent sector is part of each LETB and works with them to maximise training.
But David Worskett, director of the NHS Partners Network, raised concerns that a levy for paying training providers would be “complex and bureaucratic to operate and could create an unfair disadvantage for the independent sector”.
To view the report, visit: www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmhealth/6/602.htm
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