boom and bust in the NHS

Those of us working in the NHS realised long ago that there's something seriously wrong with the way that staffing is planned and now the Paliamentary Select Committee for Health has said the same thing, saying at present there is a "boom and bust" approach. Not so long ago there was an issue with the ethics of recruiting staff from overseas to make up for the shortfall in British staff available but now nationally there are redundancies and the cutting of posts. The whole process of staff planning is a random event and nowhere is it more evident than in the huge mess up in physiotherapy training. It's now old news how the vast majority of graduates are unable to get a job and come July there will be yet another wave of newly qualified physiotherapists looking for jobs which do not exist. It will be no comfort to them to learn that less that 3 years ago staff were being sought from overseas to fill the gaps in the labor-market. It's interesting to look at the role of the professional bodies and trade unions in all this. Maybe the time has come for them all to stop being campaigning organisations and to begin looking further than their narrow interest group agendas. Although they ultimately cannot be blamed for the shameful mess in workforce planning their past complaints about vacancies and shortages in staff to fill posts now look very naive.