Long-Term NHS Vacancy Rates Continue To Fall, UK

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 29 Aug 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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Statistics published by The NHS Information Centre show that vacancy rates across the NHS are continuing to fall, with long-term vacancy rates for all of the main staff groups now below 1.0 per cent.

The NHS Vacancy Survey 2008 reports on NHS vacancies that remained unfilled for three months or more on 31 March 2008.

A separate survey also published recently, The GP Practice Vacancies Survey 2008, collects data directly from GP practices and produces estimated three-month vacancy figures at national level for GPs, practices nurses and other practice staff.

For the main staff groups, the surveys show:

• The long-term vacancy rate for NHS medical and dental staff (this group comprises hospital doctors and dentists) fell from 1.1 per cent to 0.9 per cent.
  
  
• Long-term vacancy rates were lowest among GPs at an estimated 0.3 per cent.
  
  
• Although the overall long-term vacancy rate for qualified nurses was unchanged at 0.5 per cent, within nurses, the rate for midwives increased from 0.5 per cent to 0.8 per cent.
  
  
• The North East Strategic Health Authority had the highest long-term vacancy rate across medical and dental staff groups at 1.6 per cent (though this was a fall from 1.9 per cent in the previous year).
  
  
• Vacancy rates among consultants were highest in the North West and London Strategic Health Authorities where they stand at 1.3 per cent.
  
  
• Vacancy rates among consultants in the London Strategic Health Authority have risen to 1.3 per cent from 0.7 per cent in 2007 and they now account for nearly 30 per cent of all consultant vacancies in England compared to 13 per cent in 2007.

For the first time both reports include experimental statistics showing total vacancies and these show total vacancy rates varied from 3.6 per cent for medical and dental staff to an estimated 1.2 per cent for GPs. Comparison of these with the three month vacancy rates indicates that most posts are being filled within three months.

Chief executive of The NHS Information Centre Tim Straughan said: "Today's figures show long-term vacancy rates are continuing to fall across nearly all staff groups. This is good news for patients because low vacancy rates are likely to contribute towards better continuity of care.

"The new, experimental data in the report shows total vacancy rates and is aimed at providing a richer picture of staff vacancies in the NHS."

Full details are at: http://www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/vacancysurv08

1. The NHS Information Centre is England's authoritative, independent source of health and social care information. It works with more than 300 health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researchers, regulators and policymakers in their work.

The NHS Information Centre also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.

2. The NHS Vacancy Survey received returns from all NHS organisations in England. The three month vacancy rates are calculated by dividing the number of vacancies by full-time equivalent staff in post plus the number of vacancies. This ratio is expressed as a percentage.

3. The GP Practice Vacancies Survey collects data directly from GP practices and produces estimated three-month vacancy figures at national level for GPs, practices nurses/nurse practitioners and other practice staff. The survey samples 2,000 randomly selected GP practices in England and 200 practices in Wales.

4. Both of these surveys have been established for a number of years and seek information on the volume of 'hard to fill' vacancies that have been open, and actively recruited to, for three months or more at the end of March each year. This year the survey was extended to include details of total active vacancies. The aim was to provide improved analysis and benchmarking data for the NHS and Department of Health. The data on total vacancies have been validated as far as is feasible for a new collection with the NHS and they will be clearly labelled as experimental statistics (http://www.national-statistics.org.uk/CCI.nugget.asp?ID-173).

NHS Information Centre