Vacancies at Shropshire Hospitals have risen
One in 10 positions were not filled at Shropshire's hospitals at the end of 2022, new figures show.
The figures come as a staff body for nurses says NHS nurses are being put under "intolerable pressure" as there "simply aren't enough of them".
New figures from NHS England show 9.2 per cent of full-time equivalent positions at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust – which is responsible for the Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal Hospitals were unfilled as of the end of December.
At the end of March 2022, this figure was 7.6 per cent.
At The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Oswestry,10.2 per cent of full-time equivalent positions were unfilled as of the end of December.
At the end of March 2022, this figure was 5.1 per cent.
Meanwhile 13.9 per cent of full-time equivalent positions at Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust were unfilled as of the end of December.
At the end of March 2022, this figure was 5.6 per cent.
Vacancies do not mean the jobs are not being carried out, as a shortfall in permanent employees may be covered by temporary or agency staff.
Nationally of 212 trusts across England, 79 or 37 per cent had a vacancy rate of 10 per cent or more – with Bradford District Care Trust having the highest, at 23.3 per cent.
The NHS cautions discrepancies between trusts may be due to "transient labour populations" and operating models "designed to utilise different proportions of temporary workforce".
Simon Balderstone, Deputy Director of People Operations at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), said they were trying a number of measures to bring more people in.
He said: “We are taking positive steps and are constantly striving to improve the recruitment and retention across all roles and professions.
“A range of events are being held this year to attract staff to our trust. This includes open days and careers events, for both clinical and non-clinical roles.
“Our trust has joined up with local colleges too to offer course and career support for those looking for a career or returning to a career in the NHS. We are also training more of our own staff through a range of apprenticeships and leadership programmes – this is helping to fill key vacancies and provide better care for patients.
“We are also working with our staff to create a supportive and valued culture to help with retention as well as supporting recruitment.”
Stacey Keegan, Chief Executive of The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, said: “The recruitment and retention of staff is a significant challenge for the NHS as a whole, and it is an area in which we have placed significant energy. Since the turn of the year, we have run two recruitment days – with another to come in July – and have also recruited more than a dozen nurses internationally.
“But we have also put a lot of work into how we can better support our staff so that they want to stay. Among many steps we have taken, we have put in new measures to help them with the cost of living challenges – including free breakfasts and subsidised hot lunches for all staff. We have also increased training and development opportunities for managers so that they are better placed to support their teams.
“We are already seeing tangible benefits from these efforts, though we are not complacent and continue to maintain a keen focus on this work.”
Clair Hobbs, Director of Nursing & Workforce at Shropshire Community Health Trust said: "In 2022/23 our ambition was for our Full Time Equivalent Roles to increase in line with plans for developing services. A number of roles were therefore, introduced into our organisation. During the same period we also had a number of staff leave the trust increasing the vacancy gap as reflected in the statistics reported at the end of 2022.
"The recruitment and retention of our staff is a real focus for us and since November 2022 we have seen a steady increase in our contracted Full Time Equivalent roles and continue to do so. Going forward we have a number of exciting initiatives to attract people to Shropshire Community Health Trust as a rewarding place to work and have already welcomed a number of talented new recruits to the trust."
General secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, Pat Cullen, said: "Recruiting and retaining nursing staff in the NHS has become a serious challenge on the back of over a decade of pay cuts."
She said a lack of staff was impacting the quality of care they can provide to patients.
"Until we begin to turn the tide and fill these vacant posts, the NHS will not be able to tackle the backlog in care. This is why we are urging the Health Secretary to get back round the table and negotiate with us," she added.
The vacancy rate for nurses has risen from 9.9 per cent in March 2020, before the pandemic, to 10.8 per cent at the end of last year.
Caroline Waterfield, director of development and employment at NHS Employers – part of the NHS confederation – said: "We know that the NHS is not immune to the challenges facing the rest of the UK economy in terms of a very competitive labour market.
"Not only has it been very tricky to attract the right number of suitable candidates into some roles, we’ve also seen higher levels of turnover as colleagues move jobs within the health and social care sector and into other industries."
"In some clinical roles, such as nursing and doctors, recruiting from overseas has supplemented UK training and enabled vacancies to be filled," she added.
Ms Waterfield urged Government to implement the "overdue" long-term workforce plan for the NHS immediately.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "There are record numbers of staff working in the NHS, with over 51,500 more people compared to a year ago – including over 5,300 more doctors and over 12,300 more nurses.
"We want to build on this progress and will publish a workforce plan shortly to ensure that we have the right numbers of staff, with the right skills to transform and deliver high quality services fit for the future," they added.
