RCoA responds to 'Healthcare Workforce in England’ report

Responding to the joint report from the Health Foundation, The Kings Fund and the Nuffield Trust Professor Ravi Mahajan, President of the Royal College of Anaesthetists said:

“It’s absolutely clear that we need to address the fragmentation in workforce planning and replace it with a coordinated strategy to recruit, train and retain more health and care professionals.

“The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has made the health and care workforce his top priority and we support the vision for the right number of staff with the right skills receiving the best training and support.

“As the single largest hospital specialty anaesthetists see the impact of staff shortages every single day.

“Anaesthetists working at all grades  report significant pressures to fill gaps in rotas which compromise their ability to deliver safe and timely patient care – all this has been shown through our own research to negatively impact the morale and welfare of staff1.

“The best standard of surgical care is delivered by a multidisciplinary perioperative team, made up of a range of health and care professionals. Not having the right staff available to deliver care and treatment will have a detrimental impact on patient outcomes.”

Reference:
1. A report on the welfare, morale and experiences of anaesthetists in training: the need to listen report