Advocacy and Campaigns activities on workforce
In a five-year period, gaps in
anaesthesia workforce numbers
have doubled and the reliance on
an older workforce has continued to
grow. It is clear that the workforce
of anaesthesia and other healthcare
professionals has taken a significant
hit as a result of the COVID pandemic,
bringing to the fore longstanding
issues surrounding recruitment
and retention, early retirement and
fatigue. This continues to be one of
the priority issues for the Association
of Anaesthetists, and it is against
the backdrop of COVID-19 that we
have been seeking to address the
challenges. Through our advocacy
and campaign work the Association
has been engaging proactively with
influential stakeholders across the
UK, including politicians and other
leading figures in healthcare, to
ensure that the views of anaesthetists
are heard by decision makers and
that we are able to play a full part in
fixing this threat to the specialty.
To support our wider work representing our members, we have been building our political connections around the UK with politicians of all stripes and from all legislatures.
While tackling the workforce challenge has been a major
part of the Association’s work for some time before the
pandemic, over the past two years anaesthetists have
been placed under immense strain, with many going
above and beyond the call of duty for much of this period.
The problem of fatigue in the NHS adversely affects staff
wellbeing and patient safety. In an Association/RCoA
survey on fatigue 57% of respondents said they have had
an accident or near-miss when driving home after a night
shift, 84% have felt too tired to drive home after a night shift,
and only 64% have access to rest facilities in their hospital.
To give a broader picture across the NHS, the most recent
annual staff survey found that 47% of frontline staff reported
stress in the last 12 months, an approximately 5% increase
from the previous year, and almost 50% of staff working on
COVID-19 wards/areas reported stress in the workplace.
Improving the working environment in the NHS is an
extremely important part of efforts to increase retention
and attract new people, demonstrating a good employer.
The Association firmly believes that steps such as providing
flexible working arrangements, creating a healthy work/life
balance, and instilling a sense of wellbeing in the workforce
would deliver lasting and positive change. Increased
flexibility is needed, for example, because of generational
differences; jobs will need to be arranged differently to
suit the lives of younger doctors. We also recognise that
expansion of Anaesthesia Associates may have a role,
which is why last year we welcomed and responded to
the consultation on their proposed regulation. To support
our wider work representing our members, we have been
building our political connections around the UK with
politicians of all stripes and from all legislatures. We’ve built
important links in the UK, Scottish and Welsh Parliaments,
and continue to engage with political representatives on
important issues such as recruitment and retention, fatigue
and burnout, and how to promote greater sustainability in
anaesthesia. It is essential that they know what our members
– anaesthetists with first-hand experience of healthcare
conditions – are saying. We have been making the case for
increased support and a commitment to train and deliver
the number of anaesthetists the health service needs.
Clearing the backlog of elective cases is central to the workforce challenge, and anaesthetists have a particularly important role to play.
The Health and Care Bill, introduced to Parliament in July
2021, has provided an opportunity to be part of the wider
workforce debate. This includes a proposal that would
require the Health Secretary to publish a report once
every five years detailing how workforce needs would be
assessed and met; however a number of leading bodies
from across the health sector have expressed concerns
that a report every five years would not meet the scale of the challenge. As noted above, shortages in the anaesthesia
workforce are longstanding and predate the pandemic. Other
specialty organisations say the same about the professions that
they represent. In November last year we joined over 60 other
leading healthcare bodies, including the Royal Colleges, to
support an amendment tabled by Jeremy Hunt MP, the former
Health Secretary, that would have required the Government
to plan and report on workforce needs every two years. The
amendment also attracted cross-party support in Parliament,
showing how seriously this is being taken. Unfortunately, the
Government was not minded to support the amendment
in the House of Commons. The Association joined others in
expressing its disappointment, saying that
“Supporting the
amendment would have brought real clarity to workforce
planning and ensured the Government could be held to account
on its efforts to plug ever-growing gaps in staff shortages across
the NHS and improve patient outcomes... we are running out of
road and cannot afford further inaction.”
At the time of writing the Bill is still going through Parliament.
We are heartened to see that, as in the Commons, there has
been cross-party support for an identical workforce amendment
in the House of Lords, and we hope that the Government pays
attention to what we and so many others have been saying
about the need for a long-term strategic workforce plan.
Meaningful action is long overdue.
Clearing the backlog of elective cases is central to the workforce
challenge, and anaesthetists have a particularly important role
to play. The Association has been clear on this: the backlog
will not be cleared safely or in good time unless there is a
specific and detailed plan for addressing anaesthesia workforce
challenges, which is what we told the Health and Social Care
Select Committee during its inquiry into the backlog causes
by the pandemic. In December we met Sir Jim Mackey, Chief
Executive of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust,
who has been appointed as the elective recovery adviser to
help find new ways to address the backlog in support of the
NHS elective recovery plan [1]. We have been discussing what
anaesthetists can do to support the effort to clear the backlog,
and how they, in turn, can be better supported in their jobs.
Making sure the views of anaesthetists are heard by political
stakeholders and other decision makers is without a doubt an
important part of our long term vision at the Association, and as
we look towards recovery from the pandemic and clearing the
backlog, reaching those audiences and ensuring our specialty
gets the support it needs will continue to be a major priority.
Colton Richards
Advocacy and Campaigns Manager, Association of Anaesthetists
Twitter: @Assoc_Anaes
References
- NHS England and NHS Improvement. Delivery plan for tacking the
COVID-19 backlog of elective care, 2022. https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/delivery-plan-for-tackling-the-covid-19-backlog-of-elective-care/ (accessed 18/2/2022).