THE BIG QUESTION

THIS MONTH WE ASK

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust

Many healthcare services are reliant on the work our profession delivers every hour of every day. If we don’t deliver, optimal patient care cannot be provided. One of the most important things we can do as a profession is to safeguard the future of our services by developing today’s workforce and securing the workforce of the future. Knowledge, experience, and specialist skills need to be nurtured across our profession, especially with the recruitment and retention issues that some organisations are experiencing. Clear routes of progression, with equal opportunities for all, will improve retention, attract new recruits and deliver succession plans.

Attention is required in developing new roles to react to current demands and emerging threats. As the population gets older and treatments more effective, there will be year-on-year increases in workload, driving more automation across the specialties with adoption of clinical decision-making tools and artificial intelligence. This will bring opportunities for those interested in technical, data analysis and IT-related roles.

However, as personalised and precision medicine experience increased adoption, the profession needs to plan now to create and support the specialist roles of the future. We need to develop workforce plans that will meet future challenges.