UK: The National Health Service (NHS) is currently facing an unprecedented shortfall of manpower in the field and imposing a serious threat to staff and patients’ lives. A shortage of approximately 12000 doctors and above 50000 nurses has been reported so far. Moreover, the crisis is expected to deepen as the government currently has no plans yet regarding the issue.
The maternity services are being worst hit by the crisis, leaving behind 552 midwives during the last year. Also, the full-time GP count has been the lowest in the last three years.
The reports have been unrestrictedly published by MP’s from cross-party Health and Social Care Committee.
Additionally, the estimates suggest the requirement of extra 475000 jobs in the health sector and nearly 4,90,000 in the social care sector by the first phase of the next decade to pull the sector out of the emergency.
The issue is critical and requires immediate government intervention. But the government’s ignorance of the cause is something the health sector is worried about.
Though slight progress in the recruitment of fifty thousand nurses has been reported, yet the recruitment of 6000 full-time GPs remains doubtful. The withdrawals from the social care sector are high, and action is required to curb the menace.
In a statement, the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt said that tackling the shortage must be a “top priority” for the new prime minister when they take over in September. On the same front, Rishi Sunak, one of the final contenders in race to be the next PM of the United Kingdom, has announced the NHS manpower crisis as the biggest public service emergency and ensured to resolve the lurking issue as soon as he gets into a position of power.
“ We need a fundamentally different approach.We will take the best of our Covid response and apply those lessons to clearing the massive backlog in the NHS”, Sunak said in his statement.
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