Desperate NHS begs retired doctors to stay: Paramedics urged to WFH or part-time work amid staffing crisis

Senior doctors have been asked to delay their retirement to help break the backlog of patients from Covid.

In a letter sent to the hospital yesterday, NHS England asked senior and recently retired doctors to continue working part-time or from home in “virtual wards”.

He also suggests that older doctors may choose to have surgery in their spare time or go on to help train the next generation of doctors.

Healthcare is grappling with the elective care backlog of 6.2 million patients with approximately 110,000 vacancies. Analysts estimate that 21,000 doctors will retire in September.

Health chiefs say the shortage has made it hard to make big losers on the waiting list.

But Brits expect the workload to shrink after a controversial 1.25% increase in national insurance to raise billions of dollars for the NHS pandemic recovery plan.

The NHS has made new initiatives to increase capacity, including by requiring hospitals to perform “simple” and “low risk” procedures in “advanced procedure rooms” rather than operating theatres.

Other steps include encouraging staff to work overtime, removing restrictions on surgeons’ weekly working hours, and sending medical students and vaccine volunteers to fill vacancies.

The chart shows NHS England’s waiting list for routine surgeries such as hip and knee surgeries (red line), which hit a record 6.18 million in February. The figure is 46% higher than pre-pandemic levels and 1.3% higher than in January. Official data also showed that the number of patients who had to wait more than two years (yellow bars) was 23,281 in February, or 497 patients less than a month (two percent).

The letter, sent yesterday, states that it is essential to “build up and expand the capacity of our workforce” to clean up the Covid backlog.

He also instructed trusts to “create options for all employees” to increase contract hours.

Opportunities for retired staff include joining a staff bank to assist with elective surgeries on a temporary and cost-effective basis.

Older doctors may also offer virtual outpatient appointments from home, which healthcare leaders believe can help people manage their condition online while they wait for their procedure.

And they have been able to use their experience to train, mentor and certify thousands of young doctors.

Stella Vig, Clinical Director of National Elective Care at NHS England, who sent the letter, said: “Our people are our greatest asset in addressing the Covid backlog and have already made significant progress in reducing the number of people living more than two years old. The year wait has almost halved in the last two months.

“But we know there is still a long way to go, so it is vital that we continue to support our colleagues, use their collective skills, and leverage their ideas to make patients better.

“This is why we urge those who are approaching retirement or have recently retired to consider staying put to educate and train the next generation of doctors and nurses as well as the wider NHS – making existing staff free to run more procedures and developing the future workforce so the NHS will be more It can treat many patients.

“So, as we said during the pandemic, it’s imperative that anyone with healthcare needs continue to report so that staff can guide you on the best options for your care.”

In the next step towards increasing healthcare capacity, NHS England is encouraging the use of ‘elevated rooms’ to perform uncomplicated surgeries rather than occupying 3,000 UK operating rooms.

Health chiefs believe these rooms could be used for less invasive procedures like cataract removal and tongue-tie surgeries, freeing up much-needed theater space for more complex surgeries.

The health service also urged hospitals to offer their advisors more flexibility in working hours.

Queues for routine operations are expected to peak at around 10.7 million by 2024 in the worst-case scenario, according to NHS models. This is because health care expects many patients who miss surgery to report for treatment.

Other estimates have shown that in the worst-case scenario in 2025, 200,000 people could still be on the waiting list for more than a year. However, Health Minister Sajid Javid said that the one-year waiting period will end on this date.

Some trusts limit advisors’ working hours to 40 per week. But the NHS has asked hospitals to allow those who want to work longer to work to close the gap.

Former Health Minister Jeremy Hunt said: Timing “NHS should not beg doctors to delay retirement” and ministers have had to come up with long-term plans for NHS staff. .

Dr. Adrian Boyle, vice-president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, told the newspaper that hospitals are under unbearable pressure.

It warned that staffing shortages are “aggravated by the inability to retain staff who face fatigue, boredom and morale.”

Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, told the Times it was important to find ways to increase the hospital’s capacity.

“But we cannot hide the face that the NHS does not have enough staff,” he said.

The NHS waiting list rose to an all-time high of 6.18 million in February, according to the latest data.

The figure is 46% higher than the 4.2 million people lining up in the UK in March 2020 before the pandemic wreaked havoc across the country.

Ministers announced an elective recovery plan earlier this year that outlines how waiting lists will finally be cut from March 2024 and that the two-year expectations will be canceled by summer.

But today, experts warned: “With the long wait for healthcare to stay certain, it’s hard to imagine an end in sight”.