Staff shortages are now a national crisis

[Confusedofbritain]

Staff shortages across many sectors is now a national crisis surely? I’ve given up expecting anything of this government, but why isn’t Labour beating them with a stick over this?

Some examples which affect me personally….

• Can’t go on holiday due to cancelled flight, cause by lack of ground staff.
• I work for NHS trust and we have closed a ward due to c 50% vacancies. We have plenty of money but can’t spend it. Now competing with other trusts paying increasingly high golden handshakes.
• Tried to book restaurant for Tuesday birthday. Not possible as all places shut Monday and Tuesday due to short staff (esp chefs).
• Poor service when we do go out. Staff look frazzled.
• Can’t get a builder to do an extension. Often not bothering to quote. Builder friend can’t keep labourers and brickies. Paying increasingly high wages but getting poached.
• Window fitter quoted me 2x higher than 2019 (for a much smaller window!) probably because they’re so busy and can’t increase capacity due to lack of staff. So prices have gone up by 100%.
• Long delay in discharge for father from hospital, due to long waits for care package (caused by staff shortages). He was in hospital a lot longer than necessary and declined hugely as result.

It’s largely caused by Brexit, partly people retiring or changing livelihood during Covid…:.but why wasn’t this anticipated and what are we doing about it?

I want to see posters EVERYWHERE encouraging people to consider NHS careers. It’s a rewarding career, but impossible to cope and keep going with so few staff. We are escalating to NHS England constantly, saying we need a national solution. It’s beyond critical, but I’m not confident that there is a national drive to sort this out.

The economic and social consequences of ignoring this massive structural issue will be disastrous!

@Swayingpalmtrees : also, the health care in Poland is broadly similar to the NHS. There is no question of her "never being able to afford the operation in her own country."

Your cleaner needs to be paying NI still and be employed/ self-employed in the UK in order to get child benefit.

I don't understand the view that if only all the unemployed people would get up and fill all the vacant position it'll all be fine. Teaching, nursing, vets etc. These are skilled professions, if you knew anything about teaching (I am not one but work in education) you would know that it is not a job just anyone can do successfully. You need the qualifications obviously but to suggest that anyone with any degree or even no degree could just do a course and become a good teacher takes no account of the characteristics, temperament and abilities needed. We're not robots that can be programmed to undertake any task to suit whatever gap there is, we are humans with different capabilities, skills and personalities that will be good at some things, excel in others and be mediocre and actively rubbish at others. In addition training takes time and more importantly gaining experience and knowledge on the ground takes time.

Simple fix : better pay, flexibility and conditions. But no one is willing to implement these changes so good luck attracting/retaining staff.

I have three nurse friends who have left the NHS (or are planning to soon) because of poor pay and incompetent management. All in different departments. The NHS is a terrible place to work, ask any nurse at the moment.

I think another problem (more with so-called white collar roles) and we have discussed it on here before, is that employers haven't realised that times have changed and still think they call the shots, so requiring massively long application forms, four interview rounds, etc. Get a letter and a CV, see the person and if you like them offer them the job. Nobody will spend hours filling in an application form if they don't have to.

Interestingly I saw a job advertised yesterday on LinkedIn where the person said "even if you don't think you meet all the criteria, please apply" so acknowledging that the perfect person probably does not exist, but a competent person with capacity to learn probably does.

She is technically and can claim like everyone else.

I don't know what you mean by technically, if you mean that she has settled or pre-settled status then that's not enough. She has too be physically resident in the UK.

She's been feeding you porkies. Is she using your address? She has to have an address here for NHS and GP.

her ex is still living in their old house, which is registered with the drs etc, of course she would never use my address!

"Of course" she would never use your address because she doesn't live there, but is fine to use another address that she doesn't live at?

@lameasahorse Oh I know that! but we shouldn't have a system where in some (many) instances benefits are better than working. Work should pay and it doesn't in many cases.

Whilst it's short sighted for young people to claim as they aren't building skills, contributing, building a pension they almost certainly don't think like that. It often seems that managers in retail/hospitality are paid little more than their staff, especially when you look at the increased hours and responsibility.

How many times, her ex is still here working and paying NI, they are not divorced, technically still married, so she has every right to the benefits and to use the NHS when she is here! I am not sure why you can't seem to grasp this simple fact.

You obviously no nothing about Poland and the healthcare. My cleaner has always had to pay for her drs apps and dental apps and nothing short of a total emergency would get her cysts done for free, and the care is very poor according to her, which is why she had her baby here and then travelled home afterwards.
She is amazed at the NHS and how we afford it, and how it is all free. Every time her child had as much as a sniffle she would see the GP, as she loved the reassurance of knowing he was okay. All of our free services are a marvel to many in the world.

There are still long term unemployed that can't get the jobs and your solutions won't work, just mean even more people will fall through the net.

My DB, moderate LD, non curable and untreatable heart condition so physical work isn't an option, can't get registered as having a permanent disability, LD mean he performs poorly at interview and his motor skills are slow so factory work isn't an option, can't easily manage interactions with people in "the system" so DWP, Doctors, banks etc.

What do you suggest for him, cut his benefits to zero so the poor bastard just dies in his bed, one less eh?

Oh sorry, just saw your post about the address.

@Antarcticant Can he try the supermarkets? I have a 2nd job at the one starting with W and we have lots of older colleagues. Its quite a decent place to work, wages are just above minimum but there a staff discount and sometimes we get free food and flowers

Well your story keeps changing as you add more details, swaying. Now it’s that a married couple based in the UK where one spouse is paying NI gets child benefit. Well, no shit Sherlock.

"Of course" she would never use your address because she doesn't live there, but is fine to use another address that she doesn't live at?

Well that is not true, her son stays at the family's UK address for much of the school holidays, and sometimes her ex moves out so she can stay there when she is visiting friends for longer than a few days. Sometimes she stays with me to see my dc and dogs, but mostly she goes back there. As they are both on the mortgage there is not much anyone can say! She owns the house, she pays for the house. It is HER UK address and she has residency papers.

Surely if you are a teacher even you would be able to work out she is not doing anything remotely illegal, and does not need to use my address or anyone else's address.

So she is using an address that she doesn't live at in order to get doctor and dental appointments, while staying at your house.

We’ve lost lots of health care assistants to Aldi - they pay better than the NHS!

If you had read my earlier pp properly you could clearly READ that I said they were married, but separated lil!!! Do read the thread dear.

No, Noble she owns her own house in the UK
She sometimes stays in her own house
She sometimes stays here to visit the dc and dogs

She lives mostly in Poland

Do you get it now?

If the example @Swayingpalmtrees gives is true, it’s probably quite rare, so not worth extrapolating from. In general, people who have left the country and no longer have a bonafied address, are not entitled to benefits and NHS care.

@Swayingpalmtrees What exactly is your point? so you know ONE person who claims x y z and comes to the UK... Do you think she will solve the UK's shortage of GP's or Vets?

Bottom line is there isn't enough people, with some employability to work in a wide range of sectors & regions.

Or as one industry expert (Aviation) put it "We went from being able to recruit from 400m to 50 million"

Surely if you are a teacher even you would be able to work out she is not doing anything remotely illegal

Not from your initial post where you said she pops back from Poland, stays at your house and gets all her NHS treatment.

Now you are spinning it very differently, aren't you?

Swayingpalmtrees The key fact there is who she is married to - marriage does convey certain benefits in that for medical reasons, her spouse's residency can count (though in my case, I still wasn't allowed to claim child benefit, but my husband could and have it paid into my account, and I have had to prove my marriage and immigration status after emergency medical care or else pay for the non-emergency parts. I was even shown the bill and not allowed any further treatment without that proof).

Without that, everyone else is correct and I really doubt most Europeans who've left are in that situation.

Lots of vacancies in the charity fundraising sector too, which we are struggling to fill.

Now that is fine BUT she is still being child benefits etc from the UK government even though she moved there 14 months ago

There should be a massive clamp down on this as she's possibly not the only one doing this

I work for the NHS in central London and none of the EU staff I work with have left ( not that there were that many in the first place ) . Also, there is no recruitment ban on employing healthcare staff from the EU or from anywhere elsewhere in the world. In fact lot of recently qualified Doctors are hunting around for a post. Some are having to move up to Newcastle.

Small businesses and hospitality had years to plan for Brexit plus they were very happy to take the government handouts during Covid.

The aviation industry laid off tens of thousands during covid. A lot of those people are quite happy to go back only the various airlines and airports don't want to re-employ them. The Government can't force commercial operations, especially foreign-owned ones ( IAG and Heathrow Airport Holdings ) to employ people.

The labour market has changed in the UK however many companies have struggled to adapt after spending 30 years binging on cheap foreign workers. This practice had the effect of driving wages down, which is why they loved it. That has changed and they must now be competitive in the labour market or experience problems recruiting staff.

Work visas are freely available to key workers. That hasn't changed. The problem with recruiting NHS staff from within the UK is that nobody wants to do the job.