The number of NHS reorganisations in recent years is a key reason for the health service’s struggle to retain staff, a poll has found. Wilmington Healthcare’s managing director, Gareth Thomas, said: “Our survey shows that continued changes in workforce planning since 2000 have been a major factor in NHS staff retention problems. With concerns raised that the UK’s exit from the EU would exacerbate the shortage of NHS staff – 59,000 NHS staff are nationals of other EU countries – the survey also asked respondents about the impact of Brexit. Just under half (48%) said it would be more difficult to recruit and retain staff, 45% said it would make no difference and 7% said it would be easier to recruit and retain staff. An NHS England spokeswoman said: “This poll is wide of the mark and at odds with our own thorough and robust staff survey which garnered 423,000 responses.

Source: The Guardian March 17, 2017 06:56 UTC