Trust leaders are warning that the next government will have to act swiftly and hit the ground running if it does not want its general election pledges to be blocked by the NHS’s ongoing workforce pressures.
The call to action comes at the start of five-day-long strikes from British Medical Association junior doctors, which would bring the total number of days impacted by industrial action from the group up to over 40 since March 2023.
Among the things on ministers’ to-do lists immediately after the election are:
- achieving a long-awaited resolution to the dispute with junior doctors;
- announcing fully funded 2024/25 pay awards for NHS staff; and
- supporting the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan in its entirety.
NHS Providers says that staff occupying some of the lower pay bands — porters, nurses, radiographers, physiotherapists etc. — are especially feeling the pressure after this year’s pay award, which was meant for April, was delayed.
This risks highly valued staff becoming disenfranchised with the health service; in some cases, plunging morale even further down. This would be a particular worry against the backdrop of the more-than 100,000 vacancies that are already plaguing the NHS.
"A week before the country goes to the polls, patients are likely to see tens of thousands more appointments postponed on top of the 1.5m operations, scans and other care hit by industrial action across the NHS since December 2022,” said NHS Providers’ CEO, Sir Julian Hartley.
"All parties have put the NHS high on the political agenda with pledges to cut waiting times and give patients greater access to care. None of this can be achieved, though, without a thriving NHS workforce.”
To learn more about how leaders can foster a thriving NHS workforce, watch the exclusive online conference National Health Executive hosted recently.
Hartley continued: "Staff are the lifeblood of the NHS but almost a year on from publication of the long-term workforce plan, trusts are still grappling with staff burnout and lots of unfilled jobs. Failure to resolve strike action by junior doctors has caused huge disruption to patient care.
"It's vital that the next government hits the ground running, investing in the workforce to restore staff confidence and reset the relationship with NHS employees. Otherwise political ambitions are at risk of being beyond reach."
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