Two months ago, we published an updated UK State of the Nation report, providing a comprehensive overview of the anaesthetic workforce, retention challenges, and future projections. The NHS urgently needs more anaesthetists. 

Increasing demand – driven by factors such as an ageing and growing population – combined with an inadequate supply of anaesthetists due to insufficient training places and poor retention, has exacerbated the shortfall. This gap has grown from around 1,400 anaesthetists in 2020 to 1,900 in 2022 (15% below what is needed to meet demand).

We need to act on this and aim to build on progress from the last few years. Our first State of the Nation report, published in 2022, along with a wider programme of influencing work, helped secure government funding for an additional 70 ST4 anaesthetic training places each year from 2022 to 2024 in England. This helped to reduce the bottleneck between core and higher anaesthetic training, with the number of applications per place dropping from 2.67 in 2021 to 1.64 in 2024. In Wales, six new higher anaesthetic training places were granted in 2023; in Scotland, six new places were granted in 2024. However, many more are needed to address the workforce shortfall.