Almost half of NHS workers surveyed have left their role or are considering it

The study, published in The Lancet, found that 48% of healthcare workers surveyed had either considered or acted upon changing or leaving their roles. Nurses (55.8%) were the most likely to say they had intentions to change or leave their role, followed by medical staff (47.2%), allied healthcare workers (45.4%) and healthcare scientists (36.8%).

The findings are based on a questionnaire conducted between October and December 2021 as part of the UK-REACH study into ethnicity and Covid-19 outcomes in healthcare workers. The survey was responded to by 4,916 workers, including doctors, nurses, scientists and allied healthcare workers such as dietitians, occupational therapists and podiatrists.

Professor Manish Pareek, chief investigator of the UK-REACH study from the University of Leicester’s Department of Respiratory Sciences and Chair in Infectious Diseases at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, said: “Nearly half of the healthcare workers in this study reported intentions to change or leave their healthcare role. This is highly concerning given the NHS is already short of more than 124,000 Full Time Equivalent staff, with shortages projected to increase. Such staff shortages will put increasing burden on remaining staff, likely exacerbating attrition and ultimately risking patient safety.”

The survey also found that 47.5% of staff felt their work was undervalued by the government, 20.6% felt undervalued by their employer and 17.7% by the public. Around a fifth of those surveyed said they had experienced discrimination in the previous six months either from patients, colleagues or both.

Healthcare staff shortages in the NHS have been a growing problem in recent years, something the UK government’s newly published NHS workforce plan aims to address. The plan seeks to ‘train, retain and reform’ and includes increasing the number of training places available for doctors, nurses and other allied health staff with better opportunities for career development and flexible working options.

It recommends that NHS organisations develop benefits packages for staff including local financial wellbeing support initiatives with investment in occupational health and wellbeing services for staff, overseen by a dedicated wellbeing guardian.

Professor Katherine Woolf (UCL Medical School), co-author of the study, said: “It’s clear that feeling undervalued within such a crucial service, which is already creaking due to the enormous amount of pressure that it’s under, is having a huge impact on those choosing to leave or considering leaving the NHS. Equally, discrimination from patients and colleagues is not something that should be tolerated and only adds to the numbers looking to leave. These vital issues need to be addressed if we are to reverse the current trend.”

The UK-REACH study is a public health study jointly funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Links 

• Professor Katherine Woolf's academic profile
• UCL Medical School
• UCL Faculty of Medical Sciences

Image

• Credit: PeopleImages on iStock.

Media contact 

Dr Matt Midgley

E: m.midgley [at] ucl.ac.uk