“Received” by the economic crisis remains YOU. Despite calls for pandemic, NHS staffing continues to lag behind pre-financial crisis levels. Partial restoration of jobs was carried out mainly with support staff, which creates risks for the continuity of services provided hospitals National Health Service.

This is the main finding of a study of health workforce development in NHS hospitals before and during the pandemic, which was conducted by researchers from the Center for Research and Education in Public Health, Health Policy and Primary Health Care – KEPY, co-coordinated by the Associate Professor in the Department of Primary Health Care – AUTH Health Policy by Ilias Kondylis and AUTH Associate Professor of Hygiene, Social Medicine and Primary Health Care Alexis Beno. The researchers relied on her testimony. ELSTAT and his Ministry of Health. From the analysis of the data, it turned out that in December 2022, the National Social Security System had 8,626 fewer employees than before the financial crisis. In particular, in December 2022, a total of 84,230 people worked in NHS hospitals, of which 23% were doctors, 45% nurses and 32% other staff. According to ELSTAT, respectively, in 2009, 92,946 people worked. The loss of staff from hospitals was more intense during the first phase of the financial crisis (2010-2015), when due to a “freeze” in recruitment, a 20% reduction was made. However, in subsequent years, and especially during the pandemic, when the staff increased by 7,233 people, jobs were restored, however, not reaching the pre-crisis level.

Since 2017

In December 2022, there were 8,626 fewer workers than before the crisis.

In 2022, 77.7% of hospital workers were permanent employees, 9.5% were part-time employees (e.g. interns, rural doctors) and 12.8% of support staff on one- or two-year contracts. During the pandemic, the increase in staff was almost entirely due to the hiring of temporary staff (assistant, rural doctors, interns), while the permanent staff remained at the same level (a total of 321 new permanent jobs). As the researchers report, “The stagnation of permanent jobs in NHS hospitals and their replacement by support staff began as early as 2017 and has become a dominant tactic during the pandemic. This is a disturbing development with incalculable implications for the quality and continuity of services provided by NHS hospitals.”

In terms of the geographical distribution of NHS hospital staff, in 2022, 37.6% were concentrated in Attica, 16.8% in Central Macedonia and 45.6% in the rest of the geographic regions of the country. In 2022, there were 7.8 workers per 1,000 inhabitants in Greece, with the highest density observed in Epirus (13.3 per 1,000 inhabitants), Crete (9.4) and Western Greece (8.6) and the lowest in Central Greece (4.7), Peloponnese (6.1) and Eastern Macedonia-Thrace (6.5).

“Despite fiscal easing and especially the onset of the pandemic, most of the job losses during the economic crisis persist today, and any steps to fill the gaps were taken at the expense of support staff,” the authors of the study note and add: at the same time, the aging of employees with permanent employment, without automatic replenishment of pensions, is consequently leading to a final restructuring of the NHS hospital services.” KEPY researchers have estimated that at least 15,000 health workers are required to be recruited into the National Health Service, in addition to the annual ones that are made to replace layoffs due to retirement or other reasons, and that full and exclusive employment in the National Health Service should be reinstated for all staff with permanent assistants. The researchers also talk about the need to restore a climate of trust, scientific recognition and job satisfaction in the NHS by making up for wage losses and incentives such as educational incentives, responsibilities, development and transparency.