By Neil Trainis

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the Pharmacists’ Defence Association have signed a letter alongside other health bodies, trade unions and patient groups urging the government to stop delaying the publication of its long-awaited NHS workforce plan.

The plan, which was supposed to have been published last spring and was delayed again when it failed to materialise yesterday, is expected to set out how chronic staff shortages across the NHS can be resolved over the next five to 15 years, including increasing the number of doctors, nurses and other health professionals.

In his autumn statement in November last year, the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt promised to publish the plan this year and increase the NHS budget by £6.6 billion over two years. That pledge prompted the Company Chemists’ Association to warn that better public access to primary care “will be impossible without investment” in community pharmacy which it said was “on the brink of collapse after a 25 per cent real terms decrease in funding spanning eight years.”

The refusal of the current health secretary Steve Barclay to announce a specific deadline for publication, having previously said the plan would be published some time before the next general election, has led to intense frustration within the NHS and speculation it is too costly.

Barclay told national media outlets over the weekend that the Covid pandemic and “various things that have been happening in recent years” was to blame for the delay. However, the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers Saffron Cordery told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that funding the plan had become an issue for the government.

“We know that when it comes, it will be a very significant commitment of funding from the government because what we’re talking about is setting out the number of training places and the number of staff that the NHS needs over the next decade or so,” she said.

“What everyone has been calling for, and what Jeremy Hunt committed to in his autumn statement last year and indeed talked about in the spring budget, was a fully funded and fully articulated workforce plan for the NHS. So I think that we are talking about something to do with the funding of this plan.”

Nearly 40 organisations who signed the letter to prime minister Rishi Sunak expressed their dismay at the delay and urged him to publish “a sustainable plan immediately.” It was signed by English Pharmacy Board chair Thorrun Govind and PDA chairman Mark Koziol.

“None of your policy commitments on health can be achieved unless we address the chronic workforce shortage,” the letter said. “Across all sectors, professions, specialities, condition pathways and services there are mass vacancies and insufficient numbers of staff to meet current, let alone future, population need.

“It will take time to resolve this situation, which is why the delay in acting to address the workforce crisis is so damaging. The sooner we start to train and recruit more staff, and act to retain those already serving the public, the sooner we will see improvements in healthcare.”

'Include the whole of pharmacy' in the plan 

Govind reminded the government to “include the whole of pharmacy” in the plan and “recognise the increasing role of pharmacist independent prescribers in our health service.”

“It is vital that we recruit and retain the staff we need so we can keep looking after patients,” she said. “With teams under pressure across the system, this workforce plan also needs to support staff retention, secure protected time for learning and development, and ensure continued access to wellbeing services.”

The PDA said: “Pharmacists see first-hand the impact on patients from understaffing across the health system. Understaffing also has an adverse impact on the wellbeing of those staff who are in post.”