BHF joins MPs in calls to fix NHS staffing crisis

We have today responded to a new report highlighting that current NHS pressures could derail plans to tackle the vast backlog of care, including vital heart care.
The Health and Social Care Select Committee's “Clearing the Backlog” report lays bare the perfect storm of pressure facing the NHS as it struggles to cope with rising Omicron cases, busy A&E departments, long ambulance waiting times, and severe staffing shortages.

The current crisis not only threatens plans for the recovery of planned care, but also the NHS’s ability to meet the needs of patients, the report finds. 

It calls for long-term workforce planning to address the “unquantifiable” challenge of reducing the backlog of non-emergency care, which includes vital cardiovascular care.

We support the Committee’s recommendation for the Government to publish a comprehensive recovery plan for the whole health service, in addition to the forthcoming recovery plan for planned care, so heart patients know how their healthcare will be delivered in the coming months and years. 

At the same time, we are joining calls for an evaluation of the NHS 111 call-first service as we are concerned that encouraging people to seek help this way rather than being directed to A&E may lead to delays in people getting the right care at the right time for heart attacks and strokes. 

Finally, the Government must accept changes to the Health and Care Bill that would require more regular workforce reporting.

This would go some way to addressing longstanding workforce shortages, which this report identifies as a “key limiting factor” in successfully addressing the backlog of care across the NHS. 

Our response

Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, our Associate Medical Director and Consultant Cardiologist said: “The rapid spread of Omicron and soaring staff vacancies have left the NHS in crisis, with even life saving emergency heart attack care disrupted.

“Meanwhile, people who need planned heart disease care may be living with a ticking timebomb, as a problem labelled ‘routine’ can quickly become life-threatening.

"Dangerous delays could lead to heart attacks that needn’t have happened, disabling heart failure, or even premature death.

"With not enough staff for the vast numbers of increasingly unwell patients, today’s timely report highlights how the current crisis will add to an already enormous and mounting backlog of unaddressed heart care.

“Hundreds of thousands of heart patients have been waiting too long for care that could save their life – they can’t wait any longer.

"The Government must address the worsening staffing crisis now, starting with a specific strategy for tackling the severe cardiovascular workforce shortage.”