NHS staff shortages in England could exceed 570,000 by 2036.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/mar/26/nhs-england-staff-shortages-could-exceed-570000-by-2036-study-finds

The NHS in England needs a massive injection of homegrown doctors, nurses, GPs and dentists to avert a recruitment crisis that could leave it short of 571,000 staff, according to an internal document seen by the Guardian.
A long-awaited workforce plan produced by NHS England says the health service is already operating with 154,000 fewer full-time staff than it needs, and that number could balloon to 571,000 staff by 2036 on current trends.
The 107-page blueprint, which is being examined by ministers, sets out detailed proposals to end the understaffing that has plagued the health service for years. It says that without radical action, the NHS in England will have 28,000 fewer GPs, 44,000 fewer community nurses and an even greater lack of paramedics within 15 years.
It suggests that the NHS will not be able to cope with the increasing demand for care that will arise in coming years as a result of the growing and ageing population. Services in rural areas, which already struggle to attract enough staff, will be left unable to give patients – especially older people – the help and treatment they need, it warns.
NHS England also makes clear in the blueprint its view, which is widely shared by health experts and staff groups, that the government must ditch its reliance on hiring more and more overseas health professionals and spending billions of pounds a year on temporary staff.
A recent draft of the plan revealed that the NHS was operating with 154,000 fewer full-time staff than it needs – far more than the official figure of 124,000.

In a thinly veiled plea to ministers to kickstart an ambitious programme to give the NHS enough personnel, it added: “Without any intervention or improvement in productivity, the workforce shortfall will grow to 571,000 full-time equivalents by 2036/37.” Those 571,000 staff are the equivalent of more than a third (37%) of the service’s existing 1.6 million-strong workforce.