New nurses left jobless by labours NHS budget squeeze
Thousands of newly qualified nurses are facing unemployment because of labour's NHS hospital cutbacks, with vacancies at their lowest for 10 years. New National Health Service figures have revealed how difficult it is for nurses, physiotherapists, scientists and doctors to find jobs.
The highest vacancy rate was among consultants, with 1.2 per cent of jobs empty compared with 0.4 in trainee nursing. There are currently 5,000 newly qualified nurses who cannot find a job and half of the 2,413 newly qualified physiotherapists have not found permanent posts.
More than 20,000 jobs have been cut in recent years as managers struggle to bring NHS finances back into balance.
Vacancy rates across the medical professions have dropped, showing the boom and bust nature of current workforce planning in the health service.
Places at medical school and nursing colleges were expanded and the NHS has now almost reached a point where it is self-sufficient in staff.
But experts are predicting shortages again in the medium to long-term because large numbers of nurses, GPs and consultants are nearing retirement age. In the meantime, newly qualified staff are struggling to find work and many are considering retraining or working abroad.
Dr Peter Carter, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: "This is not a 'good news' story for nurses.
''Vacancy rates appear to have reached their lowest levels for years but we fear that has been achieved only by widespread freezing and deleting of posts by NHS trusts desperate to balance the books.
"Thousands of newly qualified nurses - costing taxpayers millions of pounds to train - cannot find jobs this year yet at the same time the workload on the wards and in the community remains high.
"It's time for the Government to put in place a long-term workforce strategy that prevents the feast or famine characteristic of the NHS job market in recent years."
The NHS Vacancy Survey also found that:
- In March 2007 there were 1,695 vacancies for qualified nurses and 391 for trainees.
- There were 364 consultant posts available and 73 jobs for other doctors in non-training posts.
- The vacancy rate for GPs has dropped from 2.4 per cent in March 2005 to 0.8 per cent this year.
- There were just 63 vacancies for physiotherapists in March this year compared with 464 in 2005.
- The highest vacancy rates are in the South East Coast area, followed by the North East, with the lowest in the West Midlands.
From:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/21/nhospital821.xml
Health Direct points out that Labour's complete and utter incompetence in attempting to "save the NHS" is exposed by these latest figures. It's a waste of taxpayers money for us to subsidise medical training and then throw the highly skilled new staff out onto the dole queues.
On March 22, 07 Health Direct posted: MPs expose lack of control over NHS billions
A devastating insight into financial mismanagement at all levels of the NHS- from Labour ministers down to hospital bureaucrats- is provided by a committee of MPs. The report by the all party Public Accounts Committee exposes how billions of pounds of taxpayers' money is being poured into a health system with inadequate financial controls and low levels of accounting expertise.
The MPs conclude that NHS structures are so inadequate that the Department of Health has no idea what the effect of last year's total deficit of £570 million is having on patient care.
In no less than one in three NHS organisations, auditors had raised concerns "about the financial management capabilities of general management".
The committee said that while the Department of Health had no "overall picture" of the effect of deficits on services to patients, it was clear they were adversely affecting the level and quality of care.
Dr Peter Carter, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nurses, said it was very disturbing that the department had no clue about the effect of deficits on services and jobs. "It's time for the Government to come clean.
Ministers need their advisers to tell them just how damaging the deficits crisis has become and acknowledge the Government's responsibility to work with front line staff to find a long term solution."
The highest vacancy rate was among consultants, with 1.2 per cent of jobs empty compared with 0.4 in trainee nursing. There are currently 5,000 newly qualified nurses who cannot find a job and half of the 2,413 newly qualified physiotherapists have not found permanent posts.
More than 20,000 jobs have been cut in recent years as managers struggle to bring NHS finances back into balance.
Vacancy rates across the medical professions have dropped, showing the boom and bust nature of current workforce planning in the health service.
Places at medical school and nursing colleges were expanded and the NHS has now almost reached a point where it is self-sufficient in staff.
But experts are predicting shortages again in the medium to long-term because large numbers of nurses, GPs and consultants are nearing retirement age. In the meantime, newly qualified staff are struggling to find work and many are considering retraining or working abroad.
Dr Peter Carter, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: "This is not a 'good news' story for nurses.
''Vacancy rates appear to have reached their lowest levels for years but we fear that has been achieved only by widespread freezing and deleting of posts by NHS trusts desperate to balance the books.
"Thousands of newly qualified nurses - costing taxpayers millions of pounds to train - cannot find jobs this year yet at the same time the workload on the wards and in the community remains high.
"It's time for the Government to put in place a long-term workforce strategy that prevents the feast or famine characteristic of the NHS job market in recent years."
The NHS Vacancy Survey also found that:
- In March 2007 there were 1,695 vacancies for qualified nurses and 391 for trainees.
- There were 364 consultant posts available and 73 jobs for other doctors in non-training posts.
- The vacancy rate for GPs has dropped from 2.4 per cent in March 2005 to 0.8 per cent this year.
- There were just 63 vacancies for physiotherapists in March this year compared with 464 in 2005.
- The highest vacancy rates are in the South East Coast area, followed by the North East, with the lowest in the West Midlands.
From:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/21/nhospital821.xml
Health Direct points out that Labour's complete and utter incompetence in attempting to "save the NHS" is exposed by these latest figures. It's a waste of taxpayers money for us to subsidise medical training and then throw the highly skilled new staff out onto the dole queues.
On March 22, 07 Health Direct posted: MPs expose lack of control over NHS billions
A devastating insight into financial mismanagement at all levels of the NHS- from Labour ministers down to hospital bureaucrats- is provided by a committee of MPs. The report by the all party Public Accounts Committee exposes how billions of pounds of taxpayers' money is being poured into a health system with inadequate financial controls and low levels of accounting expertise.
The MPs conclude that NHS structures are so inadequate that the Department of Health has no idea what the effect of last year's total deficit of £570 million is having on patient care.
In no less than one in three NHS organisations, auditors had raised concerns "about the financial management capabilities of general management".
The committee said that while the Department of Health had no "overall picture" of the effect of deficits on services to patients, it was clear they were adversely affecting the level and quality of care.
Dr Peter Carter, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nurses, said it was very disturbing that the department had no clue about the effect of deficits on services and jobs. "It's time for the Government to come clean.
Ministers need their advisers to tell them just how damaging the deficits crisis has become and acknowledge the Government's responsibility to work with front line staff to find a long term solution."
Labels: DoH, Labour-shambles, NHS recruitment, nurses, RCN
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