Digital staff vacancies at Wirral ‘impacted significantly’ on capacity

A shortage of digital healthcare staff at Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has “impacted significantly on operational capacity”, according to a board paper report.

Mark Chidgey chief finance officer at the trust, told the board on 4 December 2024, that staff vacancies with digital healthcare were at 12.5%, adding that two posts were being submitted as vacancy freeze exceptions.

A spokesperson for Wirral University Teaching Hospital told Digital Health News: “The vacancies within the trust’s Digital Healthcare Team (DHT) reflect a number of retirements and the challenging job market for digital healthcare professionals.

“While the vacancy rate has placed pressure on operational capacity, the trust has been working proactively to mitigate any disruption.

“We have successfully recruited to key roles, particularly within the Business Intelligence team, and are continuing efforts to strengthen the team.

“Importantly, patient care has remained our highest priority, and we have ensured that service delivery to patients has not been compromised.”

Commenting on the challenging job market for digital healthcare professionals, a spokesperson for NHS England told Digital Health News: “Moving from analogue to digital will be a key part of the new 10 year health plan to transform the NHS.

“To achieve this shift, it’s essential NHS staff have the digital skills and technology they need to improve care for patients.”

A lack of training and career opportunities for digital staff was highlighted in the NHS Confederation report ‘Frontline digitisation: creating the conditions for a digital NHS’, published on 6 August 2024, which found that workforce and training are “significant barriers” to delivering a quality frontline digitised service.

The report found that integrated care system (ICS) leaders believed that digital ambitions will not be realised unless the workforce is effectively supported.

This view has also been expressed by Dr Simon Eccles, vice president and chief medical officer at Salesforce who said that people seeking digital roles in the NHS face a “career rockface” because there is no clear pathway.

Speaking at a Digital Health Networks Exchange event in June 2024, the former NHS England chief clinical information officer was joined by James Freed, deputy director at NHS Digital Academy said that  63% of the NHS workforce lack the digital skills required to be successful.

“The NHS workforce is on average less digitally literate than the wider UK workforce”, Freed added.

Meanwhile, a leaked NHSE report in 2024 warned of a “severe shortage” of digital nurse specialists, which could hinder ambition to drive the healthcare system forward with technology.

An internal email chain from 2023 shows that NHSE executives removed a commitment to draw up a dedicated digital and technology workforce plan from the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which was published in June 2023.

An NHSE official informed colleagues that “references to the digital workforce plan have mostly gone during the editing process, but there are references to the need for both upskilling and new roles in digital in a couple of places”.

The topic of navigating digital career paths in the NHS was explored in an episode of Digital Health Unplugged in March 2024.