Amessage fromourCEO, SandyMather

andPresident, SteveMathieu

It’stwoweekssincewespentthreeactionpackeddaystogetherinBirminghamatSOA23 and its fair to say that we ’ re still feeling the impact! We were all energised by spending time together. Time was spent catching up with old friends, making new connections, linking back up with our industry partners and starting new collaborations with others. Together we learnt about the latest cutting edge science, new applications in clinical practice, patient stories, quality improvement and the latest technologies and research. We learnt together, laughed together as a multi-professional intensive care community andrenewedournetworks.

We came away from SOA23 enthused and refreshed and noting the dates for Liverpool SOA24 in our diaries (its 18-20 June 2024 in case you want to put it in your diary too!). After opening SOA23 with a multi-professional plenary session on Workforce which involvedrepresentationfromeachofourProfessionalAdvisoryGroupsandotherkeynote speakers, we felt poised and ready to review the much anticipated NHS Long Term Workforce Plan https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/nhs-long-term-workforceplan/. We had our arms open wide waiting for it to land and were planning to celebrate its publication while we ate our 75th NHS anniversary cupcakes Unfortunately, we were not privy to an advance copy of the plan, so five years after it was due to be published wewerewaitingwithbatedbreathtoreaditscontents.

There is a welcomed expansion of the multi-professional workforce planned but detail is lacking particularly around the medical workforce, consultants, trainees and SAS and locally employed doctors. We need clarity on how many training and additional substantive posts will be available for our professions across Intensive Care. We also need to understand how educators and training time will be protected. Without trainers today,thereisnoworkforcetomorrow

Whilstrecruitmentisessential,weknowthatretentionisagrowingconcernandarguably even more important. The longer-term impact of COVID-19 without any respite during a period of significant operational and financial pressure on the NHS and the cumulative impact (and underlying rationale relating to pay, terms and conditions) of industrial action has not helped. We risk running the bath without putting the plug in first if we do not ensure that retention and the solutions to address this problem are not quickly addressed.

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