1/7 I’ve seen more than 75 senior NHS trust leaders over the last three days so thought it might be worth sharing what’s uppermost in their minds at the moment. Clearly top of the list was the current performance pressure the NHS is universally under. Universally because....
2/7 “Universal NHS pressure” because there seems to be very high pressure across community, primary, acute, mental health and ambulance services in all geographic areas at moment. Striking, for example, how many hospitals report year on year A&E attendance increases of 8-12%.
3/7 High concern not just on size of demand increases but also workforce supply constraints. Staff already very over stretched, too many workforce gaps and pensions issues really not helping at the moment. Too many health and care organisations chasing too few extra staff.
4/7 Clear recognition local health & care systems must transform but struggling to find leadership time/capacity to do this properly. Plea for politicians/national NHS leaders to realise how much leadership bandwidth is taken up managing current operational instability.
5/7 Struck by how strongly many trust leaders feel that NHS must be careful about current pensions workarounds. Real nervousness on solutions just for top clinicians and not managers and rest of staff; worry that short term stopgaps now could lead to unforeseen problems later.
6/7 Ongoing major worry about current social care provision. Leaders desperate to see proper long term social care solution and clear that, short term, emergency funding for extra social care packages this winter would definitely help. Striking how often social care comes up.
7/7 Worry local systems have struggled with current strategic planning process. Insufficient leadership capacity given operational pressures and incomplete national framework have made task difficult. Keen to understand what next and what support available to get to better plans
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