NHS staff in England working on ‘edge of safety’

NHS Providers, a body which represents health chiefs, say that rising demand outstripping the increase in staff numbers means that NHS staff are currently working on the “edge of safety”.

Although there has been increase in staff numbers of six per cent over the last three years, the demand for services in this time has increased by as much as three times.

Ministers have insisted that there were plans to tackle the problem and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced rises in training place numbers for doctors and nurses in the last 12 months.

However, Saffron Cordery of NHS Providers has said that as there was no overall “coherent or credible” strategy, there was no guarantee that this would work. She went on to say that staff members were concerned about the frontline staff shortages, leaving employees with “undoable” jobs.

She went on to say “They are now working on the edge of safe services. We are seeing so much pressure on the frontline.”

She added that Brexit was making things worse, with the current climate of employment uncertainty amongst EU workers.

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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