Shropshire Star comment: Staffing a challenge for NHS

Nationally, questions over the future of health service persist – while jobs go unfilled.

And perhaps that’s not surprising. For who would want to work in an environment where uncertainty seems to be the order of the day?

But while hospitals seemingly can’t get enough nurses to swell their ranks there remain vast numbers of youngsters who would apparently like to go into the profession. Competition for places on nurse training courses is tough.

See also:

• Hundreds of nursing vacancies in county hospitals

So large numbers still see the profession as desirable, suggesting that more must be done to train nurses, to provide meaningful employment and to retain staff.

Without good staff, the NHS will crumble – and so new recruits must be treated with respect and be given the opportunity to flourish.

Somewhere along the way, then, our NHS is taking a wrong turn and the issue of recruitment must be addressed as a matter of urgency.

Expectations

This issue of staffing ties into the wider debate about our health service, which is changing beyond recognition. Many regard the NHS as the nation’s greatest institution, but uncomfortable questions should be asked as we assess whether the health service matches the needs and wishes of our population.

There is no doubt that the service established in 1948 would not be designed in the same manner were it created anew today.

Society has moved on, costs have spiralled, our expectations have changed and the demands on the service have become incompatible with the ability of the NHS to keep pace.

There are other issues, not least the costs of social care, the implications of an ageing population and the questions surrounding the creeping privatisation of our health service.

And yet such matters become meaningless if the NHS cannot recruit. And it is the issue of staffing that must be highest on the agenda as too many recruits leave the service too soon.

In the meantime, we should all remember and pay tribute to the thousands of NHS staff who go above and beyond every single day to ensure that we are well looked after when we have to use the service.