Casper on the Move

The Declining Global Health-Service

28^th May 2009

The decline in the number of registered nurses  is about to be made worse by the announcement of the Royal College of Nursing’s  latest findings that almost 200,000 nurses are due to retire in the next decade. This is a major issue for the National Health Service of which it has been criticised for failing to act appropriately in this staff shortage “time bomb.”

The numerous stories about below standard services being provided by the NHS to the public are indeed appalling and unacceptable. A major part in the problem is attributed to staff cuts primarily aimed at saving money in the highly inefficient financial management of the whole service.  Numerous evidences are easily obtainable to show the impact of staff shortages on patient safety and care quality; most especially when healthcare teams are become burnt-out and pushed to the limit.

Staff members directly involved in patient care feels that they do not have enough time or assistance (from other staff members) to properly care and provide patient a high standard of care. They likewise feel that the NHS is not actively reactive to the increasing demand for NHS services. While the whole area being served by the NHS is doubling at enormous rates, the service is still stuck with its original level of service and provisions. In fact, almost half of those surveyed said that there is just not enough staff to do the job properly.

The good side to these distressing revelations is the fact that, as a response, most trusts have made positive actions to improving their services.  But then again trust can only do so much within the constraints of the law.

Taking all factors into consideration, the easiest solution to the plummeting government service is to outsource. The UK has been and is currently being heavily disapproved of for its policy of “poaching” from other countries with which there is already an identified shortage. The UK is singled out as the major proponent in luring large numbers of health professionals into its mainstream. Not that the US, Canada and the Middle East are not doing it, but rather in a more less diplomatic and globally accepted manner.

The Global Health Workforce Alliance, a joint platform for action on the health workforce crisis, estimates a 4.2 million global shortage of health workers. It also identified that at least 57-major under-developed countries are in need of serious health workforce support and development.  

With the national and international aspects of the growing concerns for sustained health care service and provisions, substantial investments for health workers should be our main matter of interest within the next five-years when everything else will start to fall apart. (Michael Duque)