Gareth Snell Labour and Co-operative Candidate for Stoke-on-Trent Central
The words of Paula Clark, the Chief Executive of University Hospitals of North Midlands, should be a warning to those denying the problems the NHS is facing. At what stage does the government take action and properly fund our NHS?
“Staffing is the biggest challenge we face, and I think it’s one of the biggest threats to financial sustainability in the NHS. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that.
“We have real shortages in terms of consultant staff, middle grades, particularly things like acute physicians, emergency physicians. There’s a national shortage of dermatologists – we haven’t been able to take new referrals other than emergencies for months now, and we’re not alone in that.
“Neurology, interventional radiology, oncology – the list goes on, in terms of the shortages we’re seeing, and the flow-through, from the juniors to the middle grades to the consultant staff.”
