‘Retention of the current workforce and the next generation is vital’

Fresh concerns have been raised around the demands and pressures faced by short-staffed nurses and colleagues across the NHS in England, as latest figures show more than six million patients remain on waiting lists for routine care.

A series of statistics from NHS England have today laid bare the ongoing patient care backlogs, long waiting lists and increased pressures, especially in urgent and emergency care.

“Nursing staff are struggling to provide safe and effective care with a severely-depleted workforce”

Key to tackling these issues is addressing workforce shortages, according to several concerned unions and health organisations, who have once again urged the government to take action.

The number of patients waiting to start treatment at the end of January 2022 stood at 6.1 million.

Of those, more than 311,000 were waiting more than a year and more than 23,000 were waiting over two years.

Meanwhile, A&E attendances were up 1,825,000 (43%) in February 2022, compared to February 2021.

There were also 460,000 emergency admissions within February 2022, 8.9% higher than in February 2021.

In terms of performance in A&Es, the number of attendances admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours was 1,190,000 – a 25% increase on the year before.

However, concerningly, there was a 101% increase in the number of patients experiencing delays over the four-hour threshold from decision to admit to admission this year – up from 57,200 in February 2021 to 115,000 in February 2022.

And of those, more than 16,000 were waiting for more than 12 hours – up from 1,021 in February 2021.

Separately, last week it was reported that staff vacancies across the NHS in England now stand at more than 110,000, including almost 40,000 nurse gaps.

The Royal College of Nursing’s England director, Patricia Marquis, said the latest figures showed “the scale of the challenge nursing staff are facing in trying to reduce the backlog while all the other pressures they are under remain”.

Patricia Marquis. Image credit: Gareth Harmer

“With a record 6.1 million still waiting for routine treatment and thousands of patients waiting more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital from A&E, nursing staff are struggling to provide safe and effective care with a severely-depleted workforce,” she said.

Meanwhile, Unison head of health Sara Gorton said longer wait times were “extremely tough on patients and distressing for staff unable to provide the care they'd like”.

Highlighting the severe workforce vacancies, Ms Gorton said staff were “regularly doing the work of several colleagues”.

“That's left many exhausted, stressed out and totally demoralised,” she said. “Unless the government can hold on to existing staff at a faster rate than new recruits are joining, the future looks bleak.”

Also commenting on the latest statistics, Tim Gardner, senior policy fellow at the Health Foundation think tank, said it was clear the health service “continues to be stretched to its limits”.

Given workforce shortages, Mr Gardner urged the government “to be honest with the public about the challenge ahead” and called for a “fully funded workforce strategy” to address the situation.

Further monthly performance data from NHS England today also showed that, despite ongoing pressures and high sickness absence rates driven largely by the Omicron variant of Covid-19, staff delivered 280,000 more diagnostic tests and checks in January 2022 compared to the same time last year.

There was also an increase in the number of people urgently referred for cancer checks in January 2022, up 30,000 on the year before.

In addition, almost 1.24 million people started consultant-led treatment in January 2022 – 260,000 more people than the same month last year.

Deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery, praised the efforts of NHS staff who she said were “working extremely hard under the circumstances, and delivered increased levels of diagnostic and elective activity”.

Though she noted that the latest data sets demonstrated the “intense pressure” the health service was under, “despite moving towards spring, when we normally expect to see seasonal winter pressures ease”.

She too warned that workforce shortages “continue to be a real concern” and called for a “long-term workforce plan” to help keep performance levels high and to ensure the government’s recently announced plans for NHS reform came to light.

“The NHS now has 110,00 staff vacancies, and these gaps are putting significant pressure on quality of care and patient safety,” added Ms Cordery.

The Department of Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment.

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