Displaying items by tag: Nuffield Trust

‘If we keep going like this, we'll have no doctors left.’ This is the message from junior doctors on the picket line of a four-day industrial strike. Speaking outside Stoke Mandeville Hospital, they said the NHS is facing an exodus of doctors unless conditions are improved: ‘It’s about improving the NHS and improving patients’ safety, improving worker retention and making workers feel valued again.’. Their comments were repeated outside hospitals everywhere by junior doctors claiming wage cuts of over 25% since 2008/9. They want a 35% pay rise. Downing Street said the proposed increase was ‘unreasonable and not affordable for the British taxpayer’. A London junior doctor, who is not striking, said the 25% cuts are based on questionable assumptions. The Nuffield Trust calculates the 8% pay cuts up to 2021-22 based on actual earnings. Also, many junior doctors opt to work part-time, then pick up additional shifts at high locum rates. A junior doctor in London earns in the region of £55,000, and that’s before locum shifts.

A survey by the Nuffield Trust and the King’s Fund found that only one person in seven is satisfied with social care services. Social care efficiency has been falling, but this record low reflects the failure of successive governments to prioritise this service and an unwillingness to tackle deep-rooted problems in our social care system. The public are seeing a large number of people whose care and support needs are not being met, and there is a perceived lack of appropriate reward, recognition, and support for social care staff. Against this background, it is disappointing that the Government’s planned social care reforms have been watered down or delayed. This will result in dissatisfaction rising further if social care provision continues to decline. People who draw on care and support, their carers, and those working in the sector will feel the pain of this.

A quiet crisis has been unfolding in the homecare sector where the system is expected to reach breaking point this winter - unless urgent action is taken. Long-standing pressures on council funding meant that homecare providers were already operating on a shoestring with a limited capacity to withstand unforeseen shocks when Covid-19 hit. They face high fuel costs and unaffordable insurance, running the risk of closing. But demand for homecare is rising, with more complex requirements due to early hospital discharges. Workers face burnout. Unless additional funding is made available, we will likely see even more care staff leave this winter, at the worst possible time. Many disabled people choose to employ their own personal assistants to help them with tasks like getting out of bed in the morning and supporting them through the day so that they can work. There are 100,0000+ vacancies in the social care sector. See