Around 30% of healthcare staff employed in the UK were born overseas.
Although despite the disaster that is Brexit and economic problems, unemployment rates in the UK remain high, but there is a huge shortage of skilled doctors, nurses and other allied health professionals to fill vacancies both within the NHS and the private sector.
The government may have put a cap on the number of skilled workers entering the UK – with the Department of Health now only able to recruit workers from outside of the UK if they are unable to fill vacancies otherwise – but this was likely an unwise move based on the current climate for vacancies within the health service.
Reasons for the Shortage
Professions such as midwives, sonographers and community nurses have experienced shortages in staff for years, but there is also currently a lack of senior medical staff to fill specialist roles within the UK.
To become a consultant many years of training and experience are required to develop the necessary skills to diagnose and decide on the most appropriate course of treatment for complex cases. It wouldn’t be feasible to accelerate the path to becoming a consultant, as less experienced staff wouldn’t possess the same degree of clinical judgement, so mistakes and unnecessary fatalities would likely ensue.
The growing population, particularly in the older age groups, is also placing an increased pressure on the UK health service and it is estimated that an extra 62,000 new doctors and 108,000 new nurses are required to cope with our ageing population.
Dissatisfaction regarding pay and conditions is also encouraging many UK trained healthcare professionals to look for work overseas or to consider leaving their profession. For example the starting salary for a nurse working in the UK is £21,176, which compares to the equivalent of £34,500 when working in the United States, where the cost of living is also lower.
Some countries are also actively recruitment medical and healthcare staff with lots of incentives. For example working in Australia medical professionals can easily get a visa, and benefits include high salaries and a great quality of living.
Despite receiving some of the best salaries in the world, UK GPs are also unhappy with NHS work, with a survey by the British Medical Journal indicating that 14.3% of GPs were considering retiring within the next two years; with each GP serving up to 9,000 patients, the impact of this skills shortage on the medical care received by patients in the community could be huge if these vacancies are not filled.
Concerns Regarding Overseas Staff
The case of the German locum GP, Dr Daniel Ubani, who as a result of administering an overdose of diamorphine after confusing it with another drug killed his patient, is well known.
However, medical mistakes made by overseas doctors and complaints against them are not uncommon, with the General Medical Council (GMC) reporting that overseas doctors are three to four times more likely to be struck off in cases reaching their fitness to practice panel.
One of the major concerns raised is that the GMC is currently unable to test the language or clinical competency of doctors registering with them from the EU and although they have placed this responsibility with the employing healthcare trusts, this is not routinely happening; research showed that only 23% of doctors from the EU had been subject to tests regarding their language and 17% regarding their clinical competence.
After ending the strict checks on nurses entering the UK from the EU, their applications to register with the Royal College of Nursing doubled; perhaps a worrying sign. Language barriers aside, varying cultural, ethical and professional practices between countries are often cited as the reasons when problems arise for overseas doctors in the UK.
The GMC is piloting an induction course for overseas medics, which will introduce them to the ethical and practical issues faced by work in the UK, which will hopefully prevent some of the problems with overseas staff from occurring Double Glazing in Halesowen.
The Bigger Picture
It would seem that the shortage of skilled healthcare staff is worldwide, with the UK facing tough competition from other countries to attract professionals.
However, something not always considered is the impact on the country where these doctors and nurses are leaving, potentially allowing a situation to develop where their own people do not have access to the health services that they require, which might already be seriously stretched.
A code of ethics works in the NHS where healthcare trusts are unable to recruit from the world’s 150 poorest countries, though the private sector does not necessarily abide by the same ruling. Possible plans for the NHS to expand globally, where they may employ staff trained in the host country, would not help the situation either, with local people still left with issues around access to healthcare.
However, to maintain the “NHS brand” it appears more likely that the NHS would take existing staff, though this is likely to only deepen the crisis of filling healthcare posts within the UK.
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