'Ambitious' hopes for increased NHS productivity rest on a tired, burned out workforce already on its knees
Ministers hope the NHS workforce plan can help them reduce reliance on overseas doctors - with nearly a quarter of staff recruited from abroad. But a workforce that can rise to the challenge is critical to achieving that ambition.
Friday 30 June 2023 20:16, UK
There's a great deal of ambition in the NHS workforce plan.
Announced on Friday, it includes projections which are based on current data but also makes some assumptions.
On page 10 of the plan, it says: "The plan is based on an ambitious labour productivity assumption of up to 2% (at a range of 1.5%-2%).
"This ambition requires continued effort to achieve operational excellence, reducing the administrative burden through technological advancement and better infrastructure, care delivered in more efficient and appropriate settings."
However, that labour productivity is also very much dependent on a tired, burned-out workforce on its knees.
It is fine to introduce new technology to drive greater efficiencies.
But critical to the plan's success is a workforce that can rise to that challenge.
If the plan delivers on that ambition, only then will the government reach its goal of reducing reliance on overseas doctors.
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The global pool of available qualified doctors is shrinking as healthcare systems around the world make their own recoveries from the pandemic.
Nearly a quarter of the NHS workforce is recruited from overseas at present.
In the next 15 years, if the NHS workforce plan's ambitions are met, the government hopes to reduce this to around 9 per cent.
That is a huge fall.
New relaxed rules to encourage UK citizens to work in Australia and New Zealand were another reminder this week that the NHS is competing internationally.
We will not know if the plan's targets are achievable for at least the next five years.
The benefits of the extra training places, apprenticeship schemes and reduced studying time might then begin to be felt.
And this will only happen if the world stays pandemic-free in the meantime.