NHS staffing crisis: 'People can work for Amazon for more money than NHS'

Kathryn Singh, chief executive of Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH), told a meeting on October 7 that the service is “competing against the likes of Amazon and others.”

Ms Singh told the meeting of Rotherham Council’s health select commission: “People can go and work for Amazon for more money than they can in the NHS and care sector.

“We’re in a massive competition with all sorts of different sectors. We collectively need to do something as a sector about how we recruit.

“I think there is a real concerted effort that we have to take now, which is about what is going to be our long term solution to recruitment.”

Matt Pollard, care group director, said that the biggest challenge facing the service is staffing, as “significant” numbers of staff are considering retirement.

“Medical staffing is a particular pressure,” Mr Pollard added.

Mr Pollard told the meeting that the RDaSH service is looking at “longer-term”, “creative” ways to recruit staff, such as international recruitment, training support workers to be nurses, and “open recruitement”.

“It’s proving challenging for both qualified nursing staff, and medical staff.”

The Royal College of Nursing estimate there are 50,000 nursing vacancies in the NHS in the UK alone, and has called for an immediate pay rise for nursing staff.