Overseas Recruitment Drive not enough to solve Healthcare Staffing Crisis
In a recent interview with the Telegraph, new Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, revealed he has called on the civil service to “work at pace” to significantly increase” the recruitment of healthcare staff from overseas.
This recruitment drive is being called for ahead of what is being seen as a ‘triple threat’ winter. Where seasonal flu, another Covid wave, and the cost-of-living crisis will all add increasing pressure to our already strained NHS.
Overseas Recruitment
Healthcare staff recruited from overseas must conform to strict standards. They must pass English language tests, as well as medical proficiency tests to ensure they are up to UK standards.
These recruits must also undergo international criminal record checks as well as DBS Checks once they’re in the UK.
This together means, on average it takes between 3-9 months to recruit staff internationally into the NHS, dependent on the job role.
But unions are warning that the healthcare sector is becoming increasingly reliant on overseas candidates to fill vacancies. A strategy that they believe is unsustainable.
According to an analysis from the BBC’s Shared Data Unit:
The share of UK doctors joining the health service had fallen from 69% in 2015 to 58% last year. Over the same period, the share of new UK nurses fell from 74% to 61%
The share of doctors recruited from outside of the UK and the EU rose from 18% to 34% while the share of nurses rose from 7% to 34%.
Chief Executive of NHS Employers, Danny Mortimer, commented saying it’s “high time for the government to commit to a fully-funded, long-term workforce plan for the NHS”.
Domestic Recruitment
The push for overseas recruitment has been matched with a huge domestic recruitment drive.
So far this year, NHS Trusts have reported that more than 25,000 support workers have been recruited. This includes 9,000 who are brand new to the healthcare sector.
This national recruitment drive for Support Workers is evident in the volume of individuals being put through criminal record checks.
So far in 2022, we have seen a 152% increase in the number of DBS Checks we’ve carried out for people recruiting Support Workers.
Commenting on the numbers, Chief Nursing Officer, Ruth May said:
“The last two and a half years have really shone a light on the extraordinary efforts of our workforce, as their skill, professionalism and tireless work made sure that hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 patients received treatment while continuing to care for millions of others.
“I’m delighted we are seeing more people joining us in in healthcare support worker roles – working in the NHS is a fulfilling and hugely rewarding career and I welcome everyone who has accepted an offer to join us.”
Still Understaffed
Despite the recruitment gains made this year, there is still a huge deficit in the number of staff in health and social care. Recent figures put the number of vacancies in the NHS at over 100,000 and over 160,000 in the social care sector.
The staffing crisis is further exacerbated as waiting lists for treatment have grown dramatically following the pandemic. The number of patients waiting for treatment for more than 18 weeks have more than quadrupled since 2019.
Waiting lists now include over 2.5 million people.
A report from the Government’s health and social care committee has found that despite efforts to recruit, little improvement has been made to the staff shortage.
The report said that ‘The National Health Service and the social care sector are facing the greatest workforce crisis in their history’. They predict that ‘an extra 475,000 jobs needed in health and 490,000 jobs needed in social care by the early part of the next decade’.
It's clear that decisive action needs to be taken by the Government to resolve these issues.