New vision for emergency department workforce announced

A group of health organisations have announced a new vision for emergency department clinical workforce planning in England.

NHS England, NHS Improvement, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and Health Education England plan to ensure that the present workforce challenges can be met in the medium term and a proper shared vision to address future demand is realised.

Emergency departments treated 23 million patients in the last year alone, and require more clinical staff, both senior decision-makers at consultant level and those making up the broader clinical workforce, to address increasingly significant pressures.

The plans includes investment in our existing and trainee workforce and a clear plan to grow the workforce, reduce attrition in medical training and ensure that we can retain trained staff for the long term.

Jim Mackey, chief executive at NHS Improvement, said: "The workforce of our emergency departments have been working incredibly hard to ensure that they continue to provide safe, high quality care to patients despite continued staffing pressures. The commitment to train more emergency medics year on year and to develop the roles of advanced nurse practitioners and associate physicians further, while working to reduce the attrition rates of our current staff, provide a clear plan on how we and our partners will work together to tackle some of the staffing pressures facing emergency departments.

"These commitments will ensure that our A&Es are appropriately and sustainably staffed, with skill mixes that match the changing needs of our society, that provide a supportive environment in which to train emergency medicine trainees and establish these departments as attractive places to build a long and fulfilling career.”