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November 2023: Engage Britain has now merged with Demos. You can still find all our work from 2019-2023 here, but to get in touch or find out about our new ventures, go to https://demos.co.uk/

NHS staff leaving due to work life balance reach new record highs

NHS staff leaving due to work life balance reach new record highs, Engage Britain analysis of today’s NHS workforce statistics shows:

  • Over the last year, an average of 503 people every week have left the NHS in England due to work life balance – 7,045 overall in the three months to March 2022
  • This is a new record high, building on already record levels of resignations related to work life balance seen in the last three consecutive quarters

Engage Britain’s Director, Julian McCrae said: “These worrying new figures show record levels of hardworking NHS staff are throwing in the towel as they struggle with burn out.

“NHS workers across the country tell us they feel overstretched, undervalued and struggle to get help to cope with the demands of their jobs. And with staff stretched so thinly, patients are often left feeling depressed or anxious with the uncertainty of not knowing if and when they’ll get the support they need. 

“With so many staff at breaking point, and patients growing more and more concerned about their treatment, the government needs to act now. It must expand its promise of NHS reform by listening to the people who work in and use the system every day – and putting their experiences at the heart of its plans.”

ENDS 

For media enquiries please contact us on: 0203 953 6329 / media@engagebritain.org 

 Notes to editors:

  • Number of weekly leavers for work life balance reasons based on the latest quarterly figure from NHS Digital’s workforce data for January to March 2022 (June release). 26,137 NHS staff working in English Hospital and Community Health Services (excluding people working in primary care) had “voluntary resignation – work life balance” logged as their reason for leaving between April 2021 and March 2022.

About Engage Britain 

Engage Britain is fully independent charity, giving people a say on what matters most to Britain. We’re finding answers to the country’s biggest problems by grounding them in people’s everyday lives. We’re bringing together people with different views, ideas and experiences across Britain and helping them not just to debate but create the plans for change they want to see. Then we’re working with them to make those changes happen. We’re pulling people and those in power closer. And proving the public’s practical, realistic solutions can help make the country work for us all. Be part of Britain’s big decisions at engagebritain.org