Tech job vacancies hamper England's digital health plans
- Reference: 1677066314
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/02/22/nhs_tech_job_vacancies/
- Source link:
A survey of NHS trust leaders, carried out by the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), found that there are 3,500 full-time tech pro roles vacant, which it puts down to poor pay and career opportunities, and competition with the wider industry.
"Staffing gaps result in an over-reliance on commercial consultancy, which is costly and results in institutional knowledge being lost," [1]the Parliamentary report says .
[2]
While it is struggling to fill existing roles, the government has set ambitious targets to expand the number of IT professionals working directly in the public healthcare sector.
[3]
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DHSC has said that by 2030 it planned to create posts for an additional 10,500 full-time staff through graduates, apprentices and experienced hires. Charitable trust Health Education England has reported the tech pro workforce is currently around 46,009 people, excluding social care.
The government proposes that the NHS in England – which has a £180.2 billion ($218.3 billion) budget for 2022-2023 – puts £1.1 million ($1.3 million) toward reaching its targets in terms of recruiting and retaining IT staff.
[5]UK health department contracts 'critical friend' for £480m data platform
[6]UK health minister confirms data platform worth £480m will replicate Palantir dashboards
[7]Labyrinth of 371 legacy systems hindered hospital's IT meltdown recovery
[8]Government tech spending in England more than doubles in five years
"We are concerned that £1.1 million allocated to these commitments is insufficient to achieve both commitments we have evaluated within the area of the health and care workforce," the report says.
In 2022, DHSC published a policy paper titled called "A plan for digital health and social care" in which it said digitization is necessary if it is to deliver the promise of "vastly improved and more integrated health and social care services."
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But the Health and Social Care committee judged progress on this overall ambition as inadequate.
Professor Dame Jane Dacre, chair of the committee's expert panel, said: "The aspirations to transform the NHS, supported by the right digital foundations, are to be applauded, however, our report finds evidence mainly of opportunities missed."
The panel found that overall progress towards improving the digital capabilities of the NHS was too slow, and often lacked support and funding. Social care was often missed out in commitments, stifling progress across the health and care system. ®
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[1] https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/81/health-and-social-care-committee/news/186213/government-progress-on-digitising-the-nhs-rated-inadequate-by-expert-panel
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y-ZKNUwABC5fCtNcKbYxswAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y-ZKNUwABC5fCtNcKbYxswAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y-ZKNUwABC5fCtNcKbYxswAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/10/nhs_fdp_qi_consulting/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/06/nhs_palantir_data_platform/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/30/hospital_legacy_systems_recovery/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/11/government_tech_spending_england/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y-ZKNUwABC5fCtNcKbYxswAAAM4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Wasn't there a recent discussion about "culture" ?
Because the NHS culture is pretty much Kryptonite to IT professionals.
Re: Wasn't there a recent discussion about "culture" ?
Hacker: "The National Health Service, Humphrey, is an advanced case of galloping bureaucracy!"
Sir Humphrey: "Oh, certainly not galloping. A gentle canter at the most."
Health plan?
What's the additional health cover like...?
I believe one of those 'tech' roles they've still got vacant is the one I left 5 years ago.
I keep in touch with my former colleagues: They're good people and many I consider to be friends, so I do know the post is still vacant, covered by a contractor as they still haven't resolved the one basic issue: They're advertising for someone to work solo when other trusts advertise the same post as part of a team, and at higher pay. That's been one of the biggest issues since Agenda for Change was introduced: Each trust did their own job assessments to match posts to pay bands, but the next phase was never carried out: To match posts across the NHS so they were all aligned on duties and pay bands.
That second step was to stop the poaching of staff that had plagued the NHS for decades. Never happened, so now you've got trusts trying to head hunt the best staff from other trusts while also trying to reduce headcount to meet some new cost saving target that's been imposed by government bean counters.
Now consider that most of those cost savings were made by reducing back office head count such as IT...
And NOW they realise they're short on IT staff, and no one is applying for those posts. Or rather, no one who is competent is, possibly because the pay is a little on the low side, still.
Pay seems low
A keyword search for "software developer" on the NHS Jobs site shows the majority of roles are in the 30-40k range. Make of that what you will...
walking through treacle
Here and there you find great innovations going on. But huge amounts of time and energy are swallowed up with vague and changing requirements from the top, out of date tools, and suppliers giving you the runaround.
There's yet another digital super-platform in the offing so put the Champaign on ice.
£1m would barely cover the cost of a 3 nice lunches for the external contract companies like Crapita!
I assume the £1m is just for advertising jobs? Advertise all you like, if the pay is not up to scratch then you've had it. Like 98% of people I don't work a job to say I've worked at organisaiton X, Y or Z, I work to pay my bills and put some savings aside for that glorious day in the future when I can finally tell my pension providers to crack open the goody-box I've been putting money in all these years!