Government’s opposition to NHS workforce planning hugely disappointing

Over the last few months, the RCoA has worked in collaboration with others to push for MPs and Lords to adopt an amendment to the Health and Care Bill to mandate proper workforce planning in the NHS. If accepted the amendment would force the Government to produce long-term healthcare workforce supply and demand projections every two years – which would shine a light on deficiencies.

In anaesthesia we know all too well about the impact that lack of long-term planning has had. Our own figures shows that we are 1,400 anaesthetists short right now and this shortfall is set to get worse. Proper planning could have prevented this. We have, therefore, strongly supported the amendment by including it in our policy reports (such as our recently published State of the Nation report), briefing MPs and Lords, and working with the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Health. We also collaborated with others to write a letter to the Prime Minister calling on him to accept the amendment.

The amendment was accepted by the Lords on the 3 March and yesterday (30 March) it returned to the Commons. Sadly, the Government whipped its MPs to vote against it, so the amendment was defeated.

Dr Fiona Donald, RCoA President said:

“This result is hugely disappointing. The NHS is experiencing very damaging workforce shortages, and these are set to get worse. The country desperately needs better planning for the health workforce. The Government wants to tackle the record NHS backlog, but most operations require an anaesthetist to take place. It is very difficult to see how waiting lists can be reduced without proper workforce planning and investment in sufficient numbers of key staff such as anaesthetists.

“After its reading in the Commons the Bill will go back to the Lords on the 5 April. We will consult with our coalition partners on how best to get this issue back on the agenda.”