The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan was launched in June with a stated aim of ‘putting staffing on a sustainable footing and improving patient care’. These are bold and laudable claims.
This policy applies to England, but staffing sustainability and shortages occur across all the home nations. Mental health nursing, occupational therapy, psychology and psychiatry all have their recruitment/retention struggles.
NHS crisis headlines abound and its lifeblood, the workforce, face numerical challenges in delivering care; for me a most telling issue.
Nursing shortages are a global phenomenon and the evidence in Scotland is that recruitment of mental health students is failing to match increased Scottish Government quotas, despite retention efforts and increased student bursaries.