UK’s NHS Faces Worst Staffing Crisis in its History

On Sunday, former UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who chairs the Commons health and social care select committee, emphasised that tackling the NHS’ staff shortage must become a "top priority" for the new prime minister when they take over in September.

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is facing the worst staffing crisis in its history, something that puts patients at risk, a parliamentary report has revealed.

The report, which was released by the cross-party Commons health and social care select committee and seen by The Guardian, pointed out that “the persistent understaffing of the NHS now poses a serious risk to staff and patient safety, both for routine and emergency care; it also costs more, as patients present later with more serious illness.”

The MPs stressed that “while shortages in any area pose patient safety risks, these are particularly pressing in maternity services.” They recalled that in 2021, the government accepted their recommendation that NHS England needs 2,000 more midwives and 500 more obstetricians in order to provide safe care given childbirth-related risks.

“However, despite this, the NHS in England lost 552 midwives between March 2021 and March 2022. We asked the secretary of state for a deadline by when the shortfall would be addressed but as yet no date has been set”, the report underscored.

The survey also referred to the “absence of a credible government strategy” on the NHS-wide understaffing, also berating Cabinet ministers for delaying a plan to tackle critical gaps in almost every area of care.

The document cited evidence indicating that the staffing crisis in the NHS is even worse than official figures suggest. While NHS Digital figures suggest that the service has vacancies for 38,972 nurses and 8,016 doctors, the real figures could be 50,000 and 12,000 respectively, according to the report.

Echoing the report was Jeremy Hunt, the former UK health secretary and the chairman of the health and social care select committee, who told The Guardian that Britain now faces “the greatest workforce crisis in history in the NHS and in social care, with still no idea of the number of additional doctors, nurses and other professionals we actually need.”

He argued that NHS personnel know “there is no silver bullet to solve this problem,” urging the government to “give them comfort that a plan is in place,” which “must be a top priority for the new prime minister.”

The NHS workforce gridlock comes against the background of the ongoing cost of living crisis in the UK, which led, in particular, to the “great unretirement” in the country.

Britain’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that right now, there are more people aged 50 and older who are at work or looking for work in Britain than since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Guardian quoted Stuart Lewis, the chief executive of Rest Less, a digital community for the over-50s, as saying that those who thought “they could retire comfortably during the pandemic are having to unretire and find work again to bring in extra income and top up their pensions while they still can.”

“Increasing numbers of retirees are feeling poorer than they’ve felt before, with consumer confidence at a record low and purchasing power eroded on a monthly basis,” he added. “All this is driving the trend of unretirement,” Lewis added.

According to the Guardian, the “great unretirement” is fueled by a spate of factors, not least soaring inflation, volatile financial markets and the growing cost of living in the UK. Last month, a Sky News poll revealed that nearly a third of people in Britain felt more depressed about the squeeze of the cost of living crisis on their budgets than they did six months ago.

In a separate development, ONS announced last week that the annual inflation in the UK accelerated in June to 9.4% from 9.1% in May, marking a record high since 1982.

Complicating the situation with UK inflation were the sweeping sanctions that the UK along with the EU slapped on Russia's financial, logistical and energy sectors after the beginning of Moscow’s ongoing special operation in Ukraine on February 24. As UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government imposed sanctions on Russian energy supplies, vowing to phase out the import of Russian oil by the end of 2022, the rising cost of petrol and diesel in the country added significantly to accelerating inflation in Britain.