Our new report on medical staffing in England is out today. Nobody working in the NHS will be surprised to hear there are severe medical shortages in England. But the figures in our report show just how serious the situation is. THREAD bma.org.uk/staffing
We need more doctors. There are currently 2.8 doctors per 1,000 people in England, while the average in comparable OECD EU countries is 3.7. Not a single region in England meets this ratio.
If medical workforce growth remains at its current rate, it’ll be 2046 before the NHS has the number of practising doctors needed to raise our doctor/population ratio to 3.7.
That puts us 25 years behind our European neighbours.
We estimate a current shortage of around 49,000 FTE (full-time equivalent) doctors and doctors in training in England across primary and secondary care.
These shortages mean that, on average, each FTE doctor in the NHS currently does 1.3 roles.
The future doesn’t look better. Patient need is rising and by 2043, 1 in 4 of us will be over 65. Yet without significant intervention, we estimate the future medical workforce shortage to be between 27,000 and 84,000 full-time equivalent doctors.
We can do better.
Doctors are overworked and burnt out. Mounting evidence tells us that when doctors are working under conditions of chronic stress, mistakes are more likely to happen and moral injury and distress occur.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
With the gap between doctor supply and patient need widening every year, necessary investment in the medical workforce can no longer be justifiably put off by our politicians.
To protect the future of doctors, patients, and our NHS, the Government must act today.
The BMA is calling for:
- Primary legislation mandating regular healthcare workforce assessments in the Health and Care Bill
- Increased Treasury investment in the medical workforce, including expansion of medical school, foundation and specialty training places
To find out more, and to read our full call to action, read our full report: bma.org.uk/staffing
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Hearings focused on testing, tracing, and isolation strategies in the UK and the devolved nations from January 2020 to June 2022.
This week, we learnt 🧵
Local authorities did not have adequate resources for large-scale public initiatives – such as contact tracing – and were left out of early scaling plans for Test and Trace, which was a major failure. [1/9]
Operation Moonshot was a ‘distraction’ – a high-cost political idea that took energy away from community-focused testing, where it was most needed. [2/9]
Today we submitted data to the Darzi Review on the key areas of concern.
Here's a thread of some of the starkest graphs and figures 🧵👇
Underinvestment and staffing shortages mean patients find it increasingly difficult to access health services.
In general practice, erosion of funding prevents recruitment of GPs and investment in practices.
Core funding is down 6.6% since 2018/19.
A lack of investment has also left more and more patients on waiting lists.
To fix this, secondary care needs continued investment and support, more focus on prevention of ill health, and action on pensions and other disincentives which prevent staff working extra shifts.
The BMA will undertake an evaluation of the Cass Review on gender identity services for children and young people.
🧵1/4 bma.org.uk/bma-media-cent…
BMA Council recently voted to ‘publicly critique the Cass Review’, after doctors and academics voiced concern about weaknesses in the methodologies used in the Review and problems arising from the implementation of some of the recommendations. 🧵2/4
During this evaluation phase, we are calling for a pause on the implementation of the recommendations in this review. We believe transgender and gender-diverse patients should continue to receive specialist healthcare, regardless of their age. 🧵3/4
We are aware of press speculation about our internal policy making process and the Cass review - please see our response below🧵1/4
The BMA continues to give extensive consideration to the methodology, findings and recommendations of the Cass review in line with the Association’s articles requiring us to ‘promote the achievement of high quality health care’. 2/4
This is a substantial process, making use of expertise within the Association, in line with the BMA’s internal policy making processes. It would be inappropriate to pre-empt our position, or to provide further public comment on those processes. 3/4
We're hearing reports of NHS Trusts asking Physician Associates (PAs) to cover shifts of striking doctors next week.
PAs are not safe to provide cover for a qualified doctor of any grade.🧵1/5
All medical duties arising from the strikes can only be safely covered by medically qualified staff; our consultant and SAS doctor colleagues, who we thank for their continued support. 2/5
PAs can support our senior medical colleagues in providing this cover, but only if they're operating within our safe scope of practice. 3/5 bma.org.uk/advice-and-sup…