{"id":630,"date":"2020-12-27T19:37:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-27T19:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/dauk-in-the-times-beds-arent-the-problem-its-the-shortage-of-doctors-and-nurses\/"},"modified":"2020-12-27T19:37:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-27T19:37:00","slug":"dauk-in-the-times-beds-arent-the-problem-its-the-shortage-of-doctors-and-nurses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/dauk-in-the-times-beds-arent-the-problem-its-the-shortage-of-doctors-and-nurses\/","title":{"rendered":"DAUK in The Times: Beds aren\u2019t the problem. It\u2019s the shortage of doctors and nurses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Without a universal policy to vaccinate frontline patient-facing staff as a priority, we could be facing avoidable staff sickness and absence over the already difficult winter months. We call on Matt Hancock to act on this immediately and prevent what will be a potential disaster this winter.<\/p><cite>Dr Zainab Najim, DAUK Secretary and GP Committee<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hospitals have been ordered to mobilise their \u201csurge capacity\u201d over new year as they face a triple whammy of soaring infections, rising staff sickness and longer patient stays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Doctors are bracing themselves for a spike in admissions \u2014 already at their highest level since mid-April \u2014 over the next fortnight after cases increased by 57% last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The threat was underlined in a leaked letter to hundreds of local NHS bosses on Wednesday from the service\u2019s chief operating officer, Amanda Pritchard. In the six-page memo on NHS winter priorities, she ordered trusts \u201cto safely mobilise all of their available surge capacity over the coming weeks\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She added: \u201cThis should include maximising use of the independent sector, providing mutual aid, making use of specialist hospitals and\u00a0hubs to protect urgent cancer and elective activity, and planning for use of funded additional facilities such as the Nightingale hospitals, Seacole services and other community capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hospital capacity was a problem before the coronavirus hit. The NHS has among the lowest per capita numbers of doctors, nurses and hospital beds in the western world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A King\u2019s Fund analysis of data from 21 countries, collected by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), found the UK had the third-fewest doctors among the 21 nations, with just 2.8 per 1,000 people, barely half the number in Austria, which has 5.1 doctors per 1,000.The UK also had the sixth-fewest nurses for its population: 7.9 per 1,000 people \u2014 way behind Switzerland, which has the most, at 18 nurses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As for hospital beds, the UK has just 2.6 for every 1,000 people, less than a third of the number in Germany, which has the most \u2014 8.1 beds \u2014 and leaves the UK 18th overall out of the 21 countries for which the OECD gathered figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWithout a universal policy to vaccinate frontline patient-facing staff as a priority, we could be facing avoidable staff sickness and absence over the already difficult winter months,\u201d said Dr Zainab Najim, of the Doctors\u2019 Association UK. \u201cWe call on Matt Hancock to act on this immediately and prevent what will be a potential disaster this winter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.co.uk\/article\/beds-arent-the-problem-its-the-shortage-of-doctors-and-nurses-vvdq78w9k\" class=\"rank-math-link\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Without a universal policy to vaccinate frontline patient-facing staff as a priority, we could be facing avoidable staff sickness and absence over the already difficult&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,29,58],"tags":[52,44,38,326,132,33,34,42],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dauk-news","category-protect-the-frontline","category-the-nhs","tag-protectthefrontline","tag-covid-19","tag-dauk","tag-dr-zainab-najim","tag-nhs","tag-press","tag-press-covid-19","tag-the-doctors-association-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}