The must-read stories and debate in health policy and leadership.
NHS England is again expanding its international recruitment programme and is now allowing trusts to bring in more types of allied health professionals from abroad with immediate effect.
Until now, employers have been restricted to only recruiting diagnostic radiographers, occupational therapists and podiatrists, but now trusts are also able to recruit physiotherapists, therapeutic radiographers and operating department practitioners from overseas, too.
The rationale is that these are professionals the NHS desperately needs and, according to NHSE, are in surplus abroad. Although, according to the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists, this is not the case.
It won’t be news to readers that the NHS has for far too long relied on an international workforce. This is not only unsustainable – and in some cases unethical – but also fragile and at the mercy of global events. And of course, there are many other Anglophone countries that are a more attractive prospect than the UK for those looking to work abroad.
But with the national workforce plan still yet to materialise and funding for additional training places or university places not forthcoming, what else can employers do? With high turnover rates, poor domestic supply and growing service pressure, international recruitment is often the only option.
‘Vicious cycle of ill health’
National funding structures for health services are “incentivising” poor performance and trapping people in the North East of England in a “vicious cycle of ill health”.
That’s the view of North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System chief Sam Allen, who has said the way national funding streams work “does not target those who need it most”.
The North East has some of the worst public health outcomes in England. But despite this, the region has some of the country’s best-rated providers – which means it has been passed over for some “targeted national support” aimed at poorly performing services, she said.
Ms Allen’s comments come as her integrated care board has agreed a £50m deficit for the coming year, with providers in the North East and North Cumbria needing to make challenging “efficiency savings”.
North East and North Cumbria ICS is also seeing its budget grow less than other systems this year after it was deemed by national formulae as being “overfunded” in previous years.
Also on hsj.co.uk today
In Mental Health Matters, Emily Townsend finds a continuing failure to listen to patients and their families when they raise concerns about abuse. And in North by North West, Lawrence Dunhill expands on the mixed news in the long-awaited “new hospitals programme” announcement.
