Leaving the European Union was predicted to bring a lot of challenges in all sectors of the country and the health sector is not left out. Even before Brexit, recruitment and retention of healthcare staff have not always been easy; there has been a recurrent workforce issue for decades. With Brexit, a lot of EU staff left the country, creating a lot of vacancies and gaps in the healthcare system and filling those gaps is very necessary in rebuilding the health sector. The challenges trailing recruitment of healthcare staff post-Brexit include:
- Funding: For a healthcare system to thrive, it needs funds. With adequate funding, there will be enough to pay workers accordingly, send them for the necessary trainings and continued professional development courses and boost the healthcare system generally. UK being on its own now means that even the health sector is now reliant on funds provided by the government alone.
- Reliance on foreign healthcare workers: The UK has relied on healthcare workers from Europe and other countries for decades. It is estimated that about more than 30% of healthcare staff in the UK are either from other EU countries or trained in other EU countries.
- Ageing population: It is estimated that there are over 11 million aged 65 and above in the UK, which is about 19% of the entire population. The health sector needs young and vibrant workers that can cope with the demands and rigours of the healthcare system.
- Welfare of workers: A happy worker is a productive worker. If the workers are feeling undervalued, overworked, unsupported, pressured and underpaid, productivity will be low and the work environment unfriendly. Also, without an attractive remuneration, a lot of people would not consider having a career in healthcare and more people would resign.
- Immigration policy: There should be a relaxed immigration policy that would encourage people from other EU countries and overseas to come to UK and remain in the UK. This would encourage retention of workers and influx of skilled workers.
HOW CAN THESE CHALLENGES BE ADDRESSED?
- Provision of adequate funding for the health sector to ensure proper training of staff and provision for adequate payment of salaries.
- Making plans to retain EU staff as well as ensuring that the younger generation picks interest in having careers in healthcare.
- Creating a work-friendly environment where workers are valued, happy, supported, trained accordingly andallowed to enjoy the flexibility they need without exhaustive work-place pressure. This is necessary for a healthy workforce and will encourage job satisfaction.
- Ensuring that the salary for health workers is enough to attract people into health care as well as retain the ones that are already employed.
- Relaxing the immigration policy to encourage skilled health workers from non-EU and EU countries to come to the UK and remain in the UK.
- Reviving the apprenticeship degree programme to train more workers in healthcare service delivery.