Domesday Live

Is the NHS short of staff?

The NHS employs far more people than it did a decade ago, but demand has grown faster, and there are still tens of thousands of unfilled posts. Training a doctor or nurse takes years, so shortages take a long time to fix.

Why it happens

• Demand is growing faster than staff. An older population, with more long-term illness, needs more care. The number of staff has risen, but not by as much as the work.
• Training takes years. It takes about five to six years to train a doctor and three for a nurse, plus more for specialists. A decision to train more today only pays off later.
• Hiring from abroad. The NHS has relied on staff recruited from other countries to fill gaps, which depends on immigration rules and on what other countries are doing.
• Pay, pressure and leaving. Staff leaving, or cutting their hours, because of pay, workload or burnout means that new recruits are partly replacing people who have gone.