More effective use of flexible and locum staffing is the only way to address the staffing crisis in the NHS, which according to the founder of healthcare recruiter HCL “is reaching critical proportions.”

Figures published by the NHS last Friday show a 5.2% vacancy rate among hospital doctors and dentists, compared to 3.6% this time last year, while nursing vacancies rose from 2.5% to 3.1% over the past year.  

    
Commenting on the situation, Kate Bleasdale, executive vice chairman of HCL, says: “This is not a sudden development; it is something that we have been flagging up for years.  The tragedy is that NHS workforce planning tends to take place over five year electoral cycles and there has been a shocking lack of long term planning to cope with these trends.

“We have always said that the health workforce is best managed by deliberately maintaining a strategic mix between permanently employed and flexible staff: a balance of 85% permanent to 15% locum is ideal.”

Bleasdale adds: “We must also take into account the views of healthcare workers themselves.  The figures released on Friday seem to back this up.  It is simply not in our interests to risk alienating the workforce by not allowing them choice and flexibility in how they work – healthcare professionals are increasingly forming a global, mobile workforce, and we must engage with this trend.

“In short, the reluctance of the NHS to engage more effectively with the private sector and take a more sophisticated approach to workforce planning is leading to long term vacancies in the workforce, which could risk damaging patient care.”