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Expressing apprehension over the concerning decline in the nursing workforce, Sir Julian Hartley, CEO of NHS Providers, urged the forthcoming government to bolster investment in nursing education and enhance support for student nurses. Recent analysis from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has projected that the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan will fall short by 10,000 new nurses by 2025. Commenting on the RCN analysis, Sir Hartley underscored the critical importance of having an adequate number of nurses to ensure the delivery of safe, high-quality patient care. "Without enough nurses, the delivery of safe, high-quality patient care is compromised," he said. He cautioned that the predicted shortfall in nurses would exacerbate existing pressures on the NHS, resulting in long waiting times, delayed treatments and staff burnout.

In a significant move to enhance the working conditions of over 50,000 postgraduate doctors in the National Health Service, NHS England has unveiled a series of measures aimed at providing greater choice and opportunities to the new entrants in the medical profession. With flexible rotas, reducing payroll errors, and easing the financial burden of course fees, the NHS has taken steps to address the issues faced by junior doctors in order to support their well-being. In recent announcement, 83 per cent of senior doctors and dentists accepted the government's pay offer. Alongside the junior doctors who still fighting for fair pay and recognition, the senior medical professionals demanded that the authorities help them tackle issues pertaining underfunding and overworking in the NHS. Junior doctors in training also often face challenges with frequent moves between trusts, leading to short notice changes in work schedules and duplicated inductions when transitioning to new hospitals. As a measure taken by the health serivces, the committee aims to review the minimum legal requirements for statutory and mandatory training, potentially halving the time burden for such training and allowing doctors to spend more time caring for patients as part of the long-term workforce plan.

The government has responded to the Health and Social Care Select Committee's report on community pharmacy, acknowledging 17 of the 19 recommendations. In its report published on 29 May 2024, the Committee recommended, among other things, an overhaul of the Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF), closing the funding gap, tackling medicines shortages by introducing generic substitution, and establishing an integrated and fully funded workforce plan for pharmacy. In its response, released today, the government stated that NHS England is currently conducting an economic analysis of the sector, which will inform future proposals for funding and contractual arrangements. On medicine shortages, it mentioned that the Department of Health and Social Care, working closely with NHS England, is taking forward a range of actions to improve their ability to mitigate and manage shortages and strengthen resilience. Additionally, the government has stated that it will "publish a refreshed Long Term Workforce Plan" this summer and is "committed to growing the pharmacy workforce."

A new survey by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has made a concerning revelation about the rise in nursing students contemplating quitting. Nearly half of nursing students in England are contemplating quitting their courses before completion. This alarming trend threatens the NHS England Long Term Workforce Plan, published a year ago, which aims to significantly expand the nursing workforce by 2036/37. The survey also highlights a dramatic 20 per cent decrease in the number of students enrolling in nursing degree apprenticeships over the past two academic years. This decline underscores the urgency of addressing the challenges faced by nursing students, including increasing financial pressures due to the cost of living, insufficient teaching and supervision, and mental health issues as the primary reasons for consifdering quitting.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has finally published its response to the 2022 consultation on hub and spoke dispensing. Considering the consultation evidence and further discussions, the government has expressed its intention to progress the proposals for enabling hub and spoke models across different legal entities as soon as possible. This will be achieved by using the enabling powers outlined in Part 2 of the Medicines and Medical Devices Act 2021 (MMDA) to amend the Medicines Act 1968 and the HMRs. Furthermore, the DHSC has decided to proceed with the implementation of the two models of hub and spoke dispensing that it consulted on. The government response to the consultation reads: "Having considered the responses, the government intend to proceed to implement the necessary changes to medicines legislation to remove the current restrictions that prevent the hub and spoke dispensing models from operating across different legal entities found in section 10 of the Medicines Act 1968.