Philip Braham, Co-Founder, Remedium Partners shares his thoughts…
Recent reports that the Government has committed to find ways to finance a £20bn-a-year injection of extra cash into the National Health Service by 2023-24 will no doubt come as welcome news for Trusts. While we don’t yet know which specific parts of the NHS will benefit from this boost, the Chancellor’s commitment to this additional funding means that Trusts are now in a much better position to plan ahead. For some time, my discussions about strategic workforce planning with Trust leaders up and down the country have shown that budgetary constraints have caused concerns in three key priority areas: continuity of care, ensuring value for money and effective onboarding and induction. So, now that a more forward-thinking strategy is possible, where exactly can we expect to see the benefits?
Creating stable, long-term teams
It’s no secret that hospitals have struggled to make rotas viable, workable and safe in the face of severe staff shortages. The frontlines of Accident & Emergency and other Acute departments have arguably experienced the most difficulty and have become reliant on temporary employees. While locum doctors are undoubtedly useful to fill short-term, immediate gaps, the associated drawbacks – such as the time needed for repeated handovers and the lack of consistency of patient care – means that reliance on these professionals was never a viable long-term solution. Not only this, but the notorious expense of locums means that frequently renewing their contracts instead of employing substantives is also far from ideal. With the NHS spending around £3 billion annually on locum agency fees in recent years, the focus must be on reducing that, too. Now, with extra funding available and the restrictive visa cap lifted, Trusts can take immediate action to create a sustainable, permanent workforce.
Consequently, we can expect to see many Trusts looking at ways of stepping up their recruitment campaigns of doctors from overseas – a crucial source of talent in our current skills shortage. Doing so will also reduce agency locum spend, freeing up financial resources further. For this reason, health leaders will need to be thinking about how they will target professionals from outside of the UK – will they visit countries to source from there, for example? And, of course, HR managers won’t just be looking at bolstering their workforce of doctors: they’ll be seeking to attract the right skills sets and people across every department, and extra money will help. Consequently, I expect to see Trusts looking at their PR and marketing strategies and examining how they will target and recruit the talent that they need. When a more stable backbone of staff begins to form, there’s no question that the NHS will be better able to deliver the quality of patient care that it wants to.
Retaining staff and increasing morale
While it’s important to attract the right medical professionals to the NHS, it’s even more important to retain them, but I know from my conversations with Trust leaders that doing so remains a key concern. As hiring managers will no doubt be aware, effective onboarding and induction strategies are the key to the NHS and its future. For this reason, it will be sensible for hospitals to allocate some of their budget to developing truly first-class programmes designed to help new staff settle.
Of course, established personnel also need to be nurtured, which is why HR departments will welcome extra financial resources to put towards their ongoing training and CPD. The continuous upskilling and development of those in managerial roles will create more stability at leadership level, ensuring that hospitals have well-run departments in the future. For doctors, many of whom will be looking to be consultants in the future, clear and ample professional development opportunities will be crucial if they are to be retained.
This budgetary announcement means that the future of our health service now looks a lot more positive than it has done recently. Trusts will now have the money to address the challenges surrounding strategic workforce planning. It’s a great gift for the NHS in its 70th year.
By Philip Braham, co-founder of Remedium Partners, a specialist consultancy which advises NHS Trusts on departmental transformation. Over the last four years, he has helped Trusts source 600 permanent doctors from overseas and saved the NHS over £70 million.
