Skills shortage ‘resulting in thousands of NHS job vacancies’

Thousands of NHS jobs remain vacant due to a lack of qualified staff to fill the roles, according to a new report.

A BBC Freedom of Information request has revealed that as of December 1st 2015, the NHS in England, Wales and Northern Ireland had more than 23,443 nursing vacancies – equivalent to nine percent of the workforce.

By comparison, the average vacancy rate across the UK economy as whole from November to January 2016 was only 2.7 percent. Between 2013 and 2015, there has been a 50 percent increase in nursing vacancies, rising to 60 percent for doctors.

As such, an estimated 69 percent of UK trusts are actively recruiting abroad for doctors or nurses – a figure that increases to 74 percent when considering only England and Wales. 

Janet Davies, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said: "Nursing posts are often the first target when savings need to be made, leading the NHS to find itself dangerously short and having to spend more on agency staff and recruitment from other countries."

A Department of Health statement defended the government's record, noting that there are more than 29,600 extra clinical staff members working on UK wards since May 2010, but acknowledged that more needs to be done.