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!

@Morph22010 can I please contact you with regards to your work

Don't forget low rates of childbirth and accompanying demographic change in the developed world. This has been masked in the past by immigration from the developing world, but with COVID reducing that, the problems are becoming more apparent.

It’s even better when you consider China’s population pyramid too, the world’s factory. And the post-war generations retiring en masse means a lot of
capital is being siphoned out of investments and used by said retirees (along with their experience being lost in industry).

Speaking of China, their opening up this week is going to have fun consequences for oil prices.

We've had a decade of wage-salary suppression, covid has emboldened certain parts of the workforce to make different choices. Plus the free money via the grants-furlough. Plus work from home. Covid has highlighted certain professions are fundamentally vital for a functioning society, these have been undervalued and underpaid for decades.
The post covid world is different. People need to realize this, out with the old and in with the new. The days of bargain-basement prices for services provided are long gone.
I certainly took the opportunity to raise our prices to generate more income and in turn profits.

mass shortages in care work (disability, illness, elderly) relates to the high level of responsibility/training required and poor wages, leading to recruitment and retention difficulties.

update @Swayingpalmtrees

I've just been rejected (before interview stage) from
housekeeping in a Travelodge
cleaning with Poppies
freelance writing online
nannying with an agency

You got any more suggestions?

@Liebig re WFH causing employers to outsource to cheaper workers... I'm not sure about this. Wouldn't many employers have already done this if it were appealing (e.g. some banks offshoring their customer service function to India)? If you have specialist skills and a role requiring a native English speaker, your role is pretty outsource-proof I'd imagine - I've just had a 40% pay increase by moving jobs into a more specialised position.

It depends on the company. The thought of WFH at my place was a dream for most roles pre-2020. Now, there are options for most people office-based to be able to do so. Admittedly, we also had been just acquired by a new company in that same period, so could be they were happy to do this with or without the pandemic.

Still, the WFH thing wouldn't have been possible even a decade ago. Now, most places have the capability with network technology as it is to allow this practise and, by extension, open to a broader market. Phone based tech support was the opening phase, but being able to do much more complex things thru the Internet broadens the workforce.

For example.

@merryhouse So sorry to hear this. My son, who has moderate learning disabilities, has had this experience as well. We deliberately applied for the lowest paid jobs as he just needed to get his first job. Constant rejections.

My advice is to just keep applying and/or get some voluntary experience.

My son has eventually got a job as a pot washer after spending months applying . His manager said that he is a credit to the store as he is so hard working.

Sajid Jarvis on BBC this morning talking about the crisis in the NHS.

Absolutely no mention of staff shortages and the current recruitment crisis. Which is the number 1 risk on all trust’s risk registers

The government don’t get it! Absolutely useless.

Please can @mumsnet get him on for a web chat ?

Yes exactly, staffing is a huge huge issue. We find lots of people apply for admin roles which are obviously really important roles- but any of the healthcare roles (including unqualified but equally as vital ones like HCAs) is dire. Can't blame people though, those who are interested have barriers put up when applying, and those in are getting burnt out. Trouble is cutting some management jobs and a reshuffle is an easy way to look like they're doing something; acknowledging and addressing the actual issue will take work.

My friend works in a care home, has done for 15 years now- completing an array of qualifications and of course lots of useful experience. She's interested in the nurse associate route, the open recruitment day has been cancelled at the last minute 3 times now. She's really passionate about it so will push on, but many equally valuable people will lose interest or see the red flags. Job descriptions often are unclear and people think they're ineligible. Degrees are expensive and many require study in the past 5 years rather than any sort of thinking applied or equivalence tests. The obvious ie more admin actually on wards and assistants to ease the burden on others is never done- and this is all before looking at qualified HCPs. Not sure of the solution but this posturing by the governing will make fuck all difference really won't it.

Yes @Artwodeetoo people like us have the answers between us, it’s very frustrating to hear Sajid Javid talk a lot of sense- and he does genuinely seem to give a shit- but completely overlook the biggest issue of all. We are shouting from the rooftops to NHS England HQ so why are they and the government not doing something significant to address the issues? I just can’t understand it.

To be fair, our trust is v good at recruitment. It’s fast and streamlined and we find the trac system works v well. We just don’t have the numbers applying that we used to.

Really wish @mumsnet could get the health secretary on mumsnet to talk to NHS staff and patients. They’re just not grasping the critical issues we are facing right now

@Confusedofbritain

He didn't address it because its not solvable, unless we re instated FOM from the EU.
If Javid magicked up 100,000 students (and the course/placements) 50% would quit before graduation, many of those left wouldn't join or stay in the NHS.

Pay is rubbish, made worse by charging for parking, shifts, 7 day working, pressures caused by staff shortages.
Even now that twat BJ is standing there being cheered, stating he is increasing pay for nurses, building 48 new hospitals and recruiting 50,000 new nurses... he is a lying cunt.

Depressing innit @Alexandra2001

Parking is a good point, it's not even just paying for it, it's the fact there aren't enough spaces! A lot of hospitals are built out of town because they take up a lot of space and fall between areas to cover a bigger area; but often public transport is a bit crap (especially after shifts) and there's not enough parking for all staff. Where I work now is in an affluent area and many staff can't afford to live close by so commute in, many leave at least in part as its a pain in the ass to get to. I was speaking to one of the cleaners (nicest person on the planet, brightens my day when she's in) and she was saying years back they had a bus which would go to the local towns and pick up staff, there was a small charge but had to book on and you'd be collected from your town centre and dropped at the hospital. As is now the only direct buses are regular paid for public ones that run just from the main bus station so most have to get 2 buses every shift.

If only the millions spent on agency staff to plug the gaps was used for something like building multi storey staff car parks or addressing public transport issues, especially with the cost of living going up. I still find it crazy that HCA's, cleaners, porters, caterers and others that keep the wards going are on hardly anything above minimum wage. It's outrageous.

@Artwodeetoo yes my friend faced similar problems. She wanted to be a nurse, but didn’t have a degree. So went to be a hca, she undertook roles in a care home for experience and did various courses. Managed to get into children’s a and e. Then spent two years being refused further training as there either wasn’t funding or staffing to cover. She was the last of her intake to leave. On her leaving interview, they offered her further training as an incentive to stay. Too late, she had another office job lined up, same money, 8 hour flexi days and training for progression.

My DD is starting her new rotation shortly, its 7 months long, she wants a neuro one next, so wont be at the district hospital but she will now have to pay £1400 for a bus pass, as the taking her car and paying the charge is even more expensive.
If she got a job at the nearby BUPA hospital, parking is free, if she got a job at many of the business units, including some Govt ones... yep parking is free.

The Govt is doing all it can to ensure that staff leave the NHS and standards fall.

K.Starmer gave a very grave account of this when a patient died waiting hours for an ambulance... a friend of mine almost died too after having a heart attack and being told it was a 4 hr wait.

There is no sinister plot within the Tory party to destroy the NHS from within. That is so ridiculous and unhelpful. It’s just incompetence and lack of strategic planning and oversight. Sorry but there is so much money sloshing around - we simply can’t spend it because we can’t recruit. Meanwhile the bill for agency and locum staff is going up and up and up….

We need a NATIONAL recruitment drive and to address staff conditions and benefits NOW!! Golden hellos, free training etc. Even just a campaign name and info website would help! Something please

Were there incentives or tax breaks to provide transport, accommodation or nursery onsite in past. Factories used to have mini buses picking workers up. A student nurse would have been able to live in a nurses home and walk to hospital.
There’s a factory very rural near here always advertising and saying you need a car. I’m sure if the put a mini bus on picking up from town they’d have more applications.

@Dixiechickonhols especially given it’s nearly impossible to get a driving test these days. As for lessons, it’s chicken and egg - need a job to pay for lessons, need lesson to get a licence to get a job.

Yes very good point @Dixiechickonhols employers used to be far more paternalistic. We’ve moved away from this as a country, which is a good thing. But if people are experiencing barriers to employment, the government and employers/ industry should be working out how they can overcome these. Especially now with the rising cost of living.

@Confusedofbritain I would disagree. - a move back to being more paternal and actually looking after employees would reduce staff turnover. Things like nurseries on site, and free or discounted travel would help. You either pay very high wages or decent wages plus benefits and stop treating people like non stop working robots. That’s if you want to attract and keep staff….

I agree, its not a sinister plot, its been done quite openly over the last decade or so.

The problems the NHS faces haven't just occurred, understaffing, removal of bursary, waste on agency staff, lack of buildings and equipment... all been highlighted many times over the last 10 years or so... yet zero has been done about it.

You are expecting the very people who have overseen this state of affairs to suddenly come up with the solutions! i mean, why would they? e.g. they've had umpteen chances to re instate the bursary and only recently blocked a 3% pay rise, only relenting when forced to do so... inflation is at 9%.

imho the Tories fundamentally, do not believe in a publicly funded, free at the point of use, health service, they want an insurance based system, along the lines of the US & the quickest way to get that is to make the sure the NHS barely functions.