The newly unveiled NHS long term workforce plan has launched with much political fanfare. The headline figures of an additional £2.4 billion in funding and the doubling of training places for doctors and almost the same for nurses certainly grab attention, but what does it mean for brain injury survivors?
The plan is certainly needed to overcome chronic staff shortages. After years of underinvestment, existing staff and services are stretched thinly. Data shows that the UK has low levels of clinical staff per head compared to most of Western Europe and feedback from the brain injury community makes it clear that there is a lack of neurological expertise within the system.
For some time, Headway has been calling for an increase in the number of neurorehabilitation professionals, in particular neuropsychologists. Although the plan details a welcome commitment to boost staff numbers, it does not contain detail on specialist workforce planning. This means that the benefits for the brain injury community remain unclear at this stage.
“We all recognise the need for the NHS to have the resources it needs to continue to provide the first-rate care we should all be proud of,”
said Luke Griggs, Chief Executive of Headway UK.
“Alongside the ABI Strategy, this plan represented another opportunity to address the shortage of specialist neurological experts within the NHS. However, it seems that this chance has not been taken.
“The plan cites a lack of available data as a reason for the absence of specialist workforce planning. This is frustrating as we have been calling for improved data collation in relation to acquired brain injury for the past two decades.
“In 2001, the cross-party Health Select Committee in Westminster published a report on head injury. One of its key recommendations was for the Department of Health to find new ways of improving methods of data collection on incidence, prevalence and severity of head injury to inform planning.
“So for the government to say now, 22 years later, that it lacks the data to make provision for specialists is extremely disappointing.
“We do know that someone with an acquired brain injury is admitted to hospital every 90 seconds. That’s around 350,000 people per year, many of whom are going without timely access to specialist neurological rehabilitation.
“It is crucial that the NHS recognises the essential role of neurorehabilitation professionals within the broader healthcare workforce.
Again, it is disappointing that this new plan doesn’t go into any detail about how this will be addressed.
“We need reassurance that this plan will translate into tangible benefits throughout the clinical and care pathway including effective rehabilitation for all brain injury survivors.
“The commitment to updating the plan every two years does give us hope that neurological expertise could be factored in, particularly following the anticipated publication of the ABI strategy.
“For this to happen, it is vital that all areas of government coordinate so that the needs of the brain injury community are met.”
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