To be honest… it’s another one…
Authoritative, well presented and clear… but it’s just another one.
Another report telling us we don’t have enough people, there’s no prospect of us having enough people and no one is doing anything to make sure we have enough people.
It’s the Health Foundation. They dicky-up some numbers, invent three scenarios and conclude;
‘In all of the three scenarios we consider, the supply of GPs and general practice nurses is projected to fall short of demand up to 2030/31…’
And,
‘… under current policy, the NHS faces a shortfall of over 1 in 4 GP and GP nurse posts by 2030/31. In our pessimistic scenario this increases to around 1 in 2 GP and nurse posts.
This raises serious concerns around patient safety, the quality of care and equity of access…’
Well, there’s no rocket science there.
There are plenty of graphs and info-grams, spreadsheets and stuff to copy into your PowerPoints… but nothing you couldn’t have guessed and absolutely nothing that anyone in HMG is going to do anything about.
Their upshot is covered in five points;
1. Addressing general practice workforce shortages requires comprehensive long-term planning…
... thanks, we knew that.
2. Top-down targets are unlikely to be effective…
… thanks, we know that.
3. Policymakers should account for geographic and sector variation in workforce supply and demand…
… they mean getting up-town people to work down-town… they won’t.
4. Policies need to be fully costed… to be implemented effectively…
... who knew?
5. Joined-up policy making needs to be underpinned by substantive research… there are substantial gaps in data about the workforce…
… sounds familiar.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
Move along to another report.
Much more interesting. It’s about workforce… more specifically, nurses.
The report is called Nurses Around the World , it’s a McKinsey survey conducted in the US, UK, Singapore, Brazil, Japan, and France.
We know there’s a global shortage of care workers. In the US there may be a shortage of between 200,000 to 450,000 nurses by 2025. No one is quite sure as they don’t have very good data…
… sounds familiar.
There’s a world-wide scramble to find nurses and hire them.
Looking after and keeping the ones we have makes a lot of sense. If you can’t get more of what you want, you have to make more of what you’ve got.
As the report says;
‘… by learning and sharing promising paths forward across nations, stakeholders could support their clinical workforce and look to solve what has become a consequential global problem.’
The NHS is, of course far to posh to do any of that…
We have ‘world leading’ policies, people directors, workforce departments, vaporous political promises about recruitment… and we’re still shipping-in nurses from India and the Philippines.
The fabulous thing about this report is how similar the problems are and how similar the responses from the people actually doing the job.
‘… across the six countries… nurses cited lack of recognition, being overworked and understaffed as contributing factors in their decision to leave direct patient care.’
More important, what would make them stay? Top five?
- A safe working environment
- Work-life balance
- Caring and trusting team-mates
- Doing meaningful work
- Flexible work schedule
… add to that; valued by the organisation and managers.
Pay? It was eight on the list. Yes, I know about inflation, pay-rises, food-banks and all the rest and I am not suggesting, neither is the survey, that pay is not critically important… but, put that to one-side and look at the list.
In all countries, respondents, overwhelmingly, ranked greater recognition for their work as among the most effective approaches to keeping them in the job.
Along with the ability to take more breaks. In the NHS ‘no-breaks’ are common.
Most countries highlighted ‘the ability to work specific hours or days of the week’, as important.
We’d call that flexible rotas. Only a handful of Trusts can do it.
This is only a short piece of work and it left me wanting more. It left me wondering…
… we have to stop talking about the attrition in healthcare and focus on the attraction of working in healthcare.
Listening, when people all over the world say;
“I want to work where I am appreciated and valued, with people who trust each other, in an environment where my work-life and my home-life are complimentary and I know, what I do, makes a real difference.”
Can we do that?
News and Comment from Roy Lilley
Contact Roy – please use this e-address roy.lilley@nhsmanagers.net
Reproduced at thetrainingnet.com by kind permission of Roy Lilley.
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