Running out of healthcare workers
Rebecca Thornton explores why there is a shortage of healthcare workers in the UK
Health is a recurring worry for many of us, but we can rest assured that if we have a problem, the NHS and health services will be there to make us better again, right? Unfortunately, this may not always be the case. The NHS has been struggling in recent years for a multitude of different reasons, but one stands above the rest: thousands and thousands of job vacancies. So why is the UK’s esteemed National Health Service suffering from a lack of workers? Here are the key factors leading to the rising number of job vacancies in our healthcare system.
Are jobs in healthcare pushing people too far?
Stress and mental health conditions play an incredibly vital role in the UK shortage of healthcare workers. They are the highest reported cause of sickness absence in secondary care and have been shown by BMA surveys to be continuously increasing after the pandemic which, due to already inadequate numbers of staff, has pushed healthcare workers excessively, leaving them overwhelmed with stress and the pressure of their jobs. RCN general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger described the stress of NHS workers as “a ticking time bomb” after looking at data and findings on the topic.
Violence and abuse directed at NHS staff is also on the rise and in 2022 over half of UK doctors reported that they had been a victim of or witnessed verbal or physical abuse towards staff. Healthcare workers, as the people that they are trying to treat and help their abusers, will inevitably be affected by increased levels of stress and mental health conditions. Let's be honest, if you had just changed someone's life for the better and they returned the favour with verbal abuse, you would end up feeling pretty awful about yourself. This issue is not given enough attention as in 2016 ‘NHS Protect’ was disbanded, resulting in a lack of national data collection for violence and abuse towards NHS staff. Leaving this issue badly addressed will result in heightened levels of violence and abuse towards healthcare workers, and staffs’ mental health will continue to decline, ultimately worsening job vacancies in the NHS.
The stress of jobs in healthcare can also have a longer-lasting effect on the healthcare service. For example, a carer I know has been doing her job for almost 30 years and has experienced high stress levels throughout that time. She frequently tells stories about her day at work and how she is not given adequate support from her colleagues, who she often describes as ‘lazy’ and ‘just not showing up to work’. This leads to other staff having to take on the burden of their less hard working colleagues, which increases their own stress levels, as they need to support extra patients on top of their existing ones. Her job as a carer has caused her to be unable to spend a lot of time with her children and the stress has led to her to take up smoking again. Unfortunately, this is common among many carers under high stress, and if many take up smoking or alcohol as coping mechanisms for their burnout, this may lead to reliance on these drugs and complicated health issues in the future; potentially, in an sickeningly ironic turn of events, them needing to care for themselves. This carer, like many others, is struggling to cope with the challenges of her job which are not just due to the nature of her job but also to insufficient support from her colleagues as well as staff shortages.
The UK is getting older
The ageing of the UK population and, therefore, the UK workforce, is also contributing to an increasing number of job vacancies in healthcare settings. Currently, 10 million people in the UK are aged 65 and over, which accounts for 18% of the population. This decreases the percentage of people who are at working age compared to those who typically need more care, which puts even more pressure on the healthcare system. Furthermore, early retirement is on the rise as, according to a 2021 BMA survey, 43% of healthcare workers said that they plan to retire early, likely due to the high levels of stress they experience in their work. What happens when all of these people retire? What state will our health service be in then?
Study, study, study…
Alongside this, the complexity and length of study in the medical field plays a crucial role in the shortage of healthcare workers in the UK; it can take around 10 years to train as a GP and around 14 years to train as a surgeon. With these long training times and a rise in early retirement, the amount of time that a surgeon or GP is actually working for has steadily declined, which leads to a greater need for trained healthcare workers.
Student loan
Studying medicine at universities in the UK can cost up to £9,250 per year in tuition fees, plus accommodation and living costs of £1,000-£2,000 per month, says Google. The combination of massive student loans on top of the stress of the job they are going into might dissuade many potential healthcare workers. Furthermore, the Medical School Council states that more than 65% of students fail to get accepted into Medical University in the UK, which leads to even more NHS job vacancies. This will also decrease the number of UK healthcare workers because if they cannot get the qualifications they need to work in healthcare, they will likely end up working in a different industry.
These problems with the healthcare service must be seriously addressed and considered in order to provide support for existing healthcare workers and decrease the number of job vacancies. This can be achieved through encouraging and supporting new healthcare workers during and after their periods of studying and training. Reducing job vacancies will reduce the stress of existing workers and make the NHS a more appealing place to work, which will encourage more people to put in the years of studying needed to work there. By addressing these vacancies, the NHS will become more sustainable, ensuring that future generations can continue to rely on its support in times of need.
Rebecca Thornton
Year 12
Health is a recurring worry for many of us, but we can rest assured that if we have a problem, the NHS and health services will be there to make us better again, right? Unfortunately, this may not always be the case. The NHS has been struggling in recent years for a multitude of different reasons, but one stands above the rest: thousands and thousands of job vacancies. So why is the UK’s esteemed National Health Service suffering from a lack of workers? Here are the key factors leading to the rising number of job vacancies in our healthcare system.
Are jobs in healthcare pushing people too far?
Stress and mental health conditions play an incredibly vital role in the UK shortage of healthcare workers. They are the highest reported cause of sickness absence in secondary care and have been shown by BMA surveys to be continuously increasing after the pandemic which, due to already inadequate numbers of staff, has pushed healthcare workers excessively, leaving them overwhelmed with stress and the pressure of their jobs. RCN general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger described the stress of NHS workers as “a ticking time bomb” after looking at data and findings on the topic.
Violence and abuse directed at NHS staff is also on the rise and in 2022 over half of UK doctors reported that they had been a victim of or witnessed verbal or physical abuse towards staff. Healthcare workers, as the people that they are trying to treat and help their abusers, will inevitably be affected by increased levels of stress and mental health conditions. Let's be honest, if you had just changed someone's life for the better and they returned the favour with verbal abuse, you would end up feeling pretty awful about yourself. This issue is not given enough attention as in 2016 ‘NHS Protect’ was disbanded, resulting in a lack of national data collection for violence and abuse towards NHS staff. Leaving this issue badly addressed will result in heightened levels of violence and abuse towards healthcare workers, and staffs’ mental health will continue to decline, ultimately worsening job vacancies in the NHS.
The stress of jobs in healthcare can also have a longer-lasting effect on the healthcare service. For example, a carer I know has been doing her job for almost 30 years and has experienced high stress levels throughout that time. She frequently tells stories about her day at work and how she is not given adequate support from her colleagues, who she often describes as ‘lazy’ and ‘just not showing up to work’. This leads to other staff having to take on the burden of their less hard working colleagues, which increases their own stress levels, as they need to support extra patients on top of their existing ones. Her job as a carer has caused her to be unable to spend a lot of time with her children and the stress has led to her to take up smoking again. Unfortunately, this is common among many carers under high stress, and if many take up smoking or alcohol as coping mechanisms for their burnout, this may lead to reliance on these drugs and complicated health issues in the future; potentially, in an sickeningly ironic turn of events, them needing to care for themselves. This carer, like many others, is struggling to cope with the challenges of her job which are not just due to the nature of her job but also to insufficient support from her colleagues as well as staff shortages.
The UK is getting older
The ageing of the UK population and, therefore, the UK workforce, is also contributing to an increasing number of job vacancies in healthcare settings. Currently, 10 million people in the UK are aged 65 and over, which accounts for 18% of the population. This decreases the percentage of people who are at working age compared to those who typically need more care, which puts even more pressure on the healthcare system. Furthermore, early retirement is on the rise as, according to a 2021 BMA survey, 43% of healthcare workers said that they plan to retire early, likely due to the high levels of stress they experience in their work. What happens when all of these people retire? What state will our health service be in then?
Study, study, study…
Alongside this, the complexity and length of study in the medical field plays a crucial role in the shortage of healthcare workers in the UK; it can take around 10 years to train as a GP and around 14 years to train as a surgeon. With these long training times and a rise in early retirement, the amount of time that a surgeon or GP is actually working for has steadily declined, which leads to a greater need for trained healthcare workers.
Student loan
Studying medicine at universities in the UK can cost up to £9,250 per year in tuition fees, plus accommodation and living costs of £1,000-£2,000 per month, says Google. The combination of massive student loans on top of the stress of the job they are going into might dissuade many potential healthcare workers. Furthermore, the Medical School Council states that more than 65% of students fail to get accepted into Medical University in the UK, which leads to even more NHS job vacancies. This will also decrease the number of UK healthcare workers because if they cannot get the qualifications they need to work in healthcare, they will likely end up working in a different industry.
These problems with the healthcare service must be seriously addressed and considered in order to provide support for existing healthcare workers and decrease the number of job vacancies. This can be achieved through encouraging and supporting new healthcare workers during and after their periods of studying and training. Reducing job vacancies will reduce the stress of existing workers and make the NHS a more appealing place to work, which will encourage more people to put in the years of studying needed to work there. By addressing these vacancies, the NHS will become more sustainable, ensuring that future generations can continue to rely on its support in times of need.
Rebecca Thornton
Year 12
