NHS is ‘dangerously’ short of staff

New financial figures have shown that the NHS has nearly 100,000 positions unfulfilled, representing one in 12 posts - enough to staff 10 large hospitals.

The financial report has revealed a a £931 million deficit this year, which is twice what was planned, and has been partly attributed to the need to cover the vacancies with overtime and temporary staff.

NHS Improvement, which released the accounts, said the health service was working hard to tackle the problems and commended staff for their hard work.

However, Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield Trust think tank, warned that the NHS was ‘dangerously’ short of staff and claimed that the ‘the lack of crucial workers in the NHS is an even bigger problem than the lack of funding’.

Saffron Cordery, NHS Providers’ director of policy and strategy, said: “These figures show how the NHS has been pushed to the limit. Despite working at full stretch with around 100,000 vacancies and a real risk of staff burnout, and despite treating six per cent more emergency patients year on year in December, trusts cannot close the gap between what they are being asked to deliver and the funding available.

“The figures confirm, once again, three key problems the whole NHS provider sector is facing: increases in demand for treatment continue to significantly outstrip increases in NHS funding, trust savings targets remain too ambitious and there are serious ongoing workforce shortages.”