Even before the pandemic, Britain was light on medics. In OEDC countries in the EU, the average number of doctors per 1,000 patients is 3.7. Austria has 5.4. England has 2.9
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitask” has long had a tender—perhaps too tender—place in British hearts. Britons danced for it in the Olympics; clapped for it in the pandemic; painted rainbows for it everywhere.is now giving way to more audible grumbles. Data from the National Centre for Social Research show that between 2020 and 2021 overall satisfaction with thefell by 17 percentage points, to 36%—an unprecedented drop.
Meanwhile, older and experienced doctors are seeping out of the system with particularly alarming rapidity. One in ten senior doctors are expected to retire in the next 18 months. This is partly due to the difficulty of working as a doctor when older. It is a physically and mentally demanding job. Some things—such as going back to sleep after a 2am phone call—become harder with age.
The slow process of training new doctors means it is too late to fill the reservoir up now. But the government could try to stop existing doctors from leaking away. Changing pension rules so they do not punish people who keep working would help. So would a cleverer approach to career planning: greybeards could be used to train new recruits, for example.
The opacity of the pipeline of future doctors must also be tackled. A coalition of over 100 organisations, including the, has written to the government asking it to require independent estimates of how many health-care workers are being trained and how many are needed. Officials, says Dr Wrigley, “are just ignoring it”. Meanwhile, the patience of patients wears thin. The sound of applause fades.
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