RCSEd Responds to the Cross-party Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee’s Report
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Responding to the publication of the cross-party Commons health and social care select committee’s report, Professor Mike Griffin OBE, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh said:
We were pleased to be able to contribute to this report, and to see the Select Committee agree with many of the points that RCSEd has been raising for a number of years, especially on recruitment and retention issues. The report makes it abundantly clear that despite the long-standing recruitment and retention problems, understaffing in the NHS is worse than expected.
Moreover, long-term workforce planning doesn’t exist, there is no plan to reduce staff attrition and even short-term commitments around staffing “do not seem to be linked to service demand”. Training is also described as “unequal” and “inconsistent” across geographies and roles/professions and bullying was recognised as “stemming from bad work environments and being a structural or systemic issues.
As the report states, the ongoing workforce crisis is putting patients at serious risk of harm. Patients are also presenting themselves later and with more serious illness, meaning that early diagnoses are being missed and avoidable additional costs are being placed on already stretched NHS budgets.
We therefore call for urgent and concerted action to address the crisis. The Committee agreed with our assertion that training needs to be prioritised and for specific targets that focus on retention, recruitment and well-being to be implemented. Urgent attention also has to be given to the nonsensical pension arrangements that are directly affecting the hours that medical professionals are working.
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About The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
RCSEd was first incorporated as the Barber Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1505, and is the oldest surgical corporation in the world with memberships approaching 25,000 professionals in over 100 countries worldwide. The College promotes the highest standards of surgical and dental practice through its interest in education, training and examinations, its liaison with external medical bodies and representation of the modern surgical and dental workforce. It is also home to the UK’s only Faculty of Surgical Trainers, open to all those with an interest in surgical training regardless of College affiliation. Find RCSEd on Twitter www.twitter.com/RCSEd and on Facebook www.facebook.com/rcsed
The College is based at Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9DW and can be reached on (0)131 527 1600 or mail@rcsed.ac.uk. In March 2014, a new base opened in Birmingham, catering to the 80% of the College’s UK membership who are based in England and Wales.
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