The COVID-19 pandemic took its toll on healthcare systems all over the world, especially in places where the pandemic was at its worst.Most healthcare systems were overwhelmed with rising cases of infection and deaths even amongst staffs. The pandemic took the world by surprise such that adequate preparations were not made for prevention, treatment and management of infection until it became widely spread. For the worst hit countries, a lot of healthcare workers were infected and a lot of them died as a result of complications from infection.The WHO estimated that about 80,000 to 180,000 health care workers could have died from COVID-19 during the pandemic from January 2020- May 2021, with UK losing more than 1,000 healthcare workers. Having an active healthcare system in the UK post- pandemic is very important, thus, revamping through recruitment of capable hands to replace those lost during the pandemic is unavoidable. However, there are certain challenges that must be tackled to ensure effective recruitment of health care staff for facilities across the UK and these challenges include:
- Adequate health care insurance: Not having an adequate plan for the welfare of the healthcare staff can discourage them from accepting work opportunities. The safety of the working staff is non-negotiable, thus, putting an appropriate health insurance plan in place for healthcare workers is very necessary. A fully funded health and care workforce plan can include adequate health insurance policy which would drive recruitment, such that, the right staff with the right experience will be willing to work knowing that their interests as regards their safety are covered.
- Proper training and continued professional development: If healthcare workers are not appropriately trained to handle crisis, then loss of staff in cases of life-threatening emergencies becomes inevitable. Relevant training and continued professional development of health care staff should be encouraged through provision of funds. The healthcare system keeps upgrading across countries thus, healthcare staff all over need to upgrade as well. It is very necessary that they keep up with the latest trend in healthcare as regards, management, care, treatment, skills needed to thrive in order to meet up with even the most complex health systems. All healthcare staff from doctors to healthcare assistants need this training and professional development to improve the quality of patient care and experience as well as their own approach to work.
- Adequate remuneration for work done: Earning less than the amount of work you are putting is very discouraging and can fuel job dissatisfaction. To overcome this, the payment plan for healthcare workers should be attractive such that it would be appealing enough to make people want to join the workforce and stay firmly without resigning.
- Management of pressure in work place: Due to shortage in health care staff across facilities, work related pressure is inevitable. The numbers of health workers are less than the number of patients they are managing. Since the pandemic, there has been an increase in absence of workers due to sickness, vacancies, low morale of staff. There are a lot of exciting opportunities in healthcare however, when the pay is low, the workers are undervalued and exhausted without adequate support, there is bound to be an unrelenting pressure to either remain in service or quit. It is important that something is done to boost the morale of healthcare workers, like increased service pay, creation of a worker friendly environment and constant encouragement. Apprenticeship should also be encouraged to ensure that more hands are available in order to reduce exhaustion and shortage of staff. A flexible work environment is the key toensuring work-life balance, staff productivity andgood health of healthcare staffs.
- Funding: Insufficient funds can stall development and proper training of healthcare staff. Clinical practice has become multidisciplinary and adequate funding is needed to run the healthcare system effectively while ensuring that the healthcare staffsget appropriate training to keep up.
- Retirement plans: A lot of experienced healthcare workers retire without being adequately replaced thus creating a gap in adequate patient management. Appropriate retirement plans should be made with the inclusion of possible return of the health workers in case of public health emergencies and consultations.
- Preparation forfuture emergencies: The COVID-19 pandemic exposed a lot of loop holes in healthcare systems all over the world. It revealed the lapses in tackling emergency public health crises and so many lessons were learnt. It is therefore important that a lasting solution to staffing be employed. Healthcare staff should be able to get adequate training, attractive remuneration, adequate funding and support such that a lot of people will be willing to undertake a career in healthcare. The pandemic might have been over but revamping our healthcare system and ensuring that there are capable and sufficient hands available to manage our health care is of utmost importance. This way, it would be easy to tackle any other emergency without fear of not having adequate staff.