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Coronavirus: NHS fights to clear backlog of thousands of returning staff amid complaints over delays

Thousands of former NHS staff have signed up to return to work but many have yet to be processed: EPA
Thousands of former NHS staff have signed up to return to work but many have yet to be processed: EPA

Hundreds of NHS staff have been brought in to clear a backlog of thousands of returning nurses and doctors hoping re-join the heath service during the coronavirus epidemic after some staff complained of being left in limbo and receiving no information.

After a public appeal by the prime minister more than 25,000 former nurses and doctors signed up to get emergency registration in just 10 days to help out on wards as the coronavirus surge in infected cases is expected to hit hospitals sooner than previously though.

Health secretary Matt Hancock said the modelling showed the peak was likely to hit "in the next few weeks."

Out of that total only a few hundred have actually been deployed to hospitals with NHS England using hundreds of staff to check and allocate staff on a regional basis.

As of Friday, a total of 1,600 have been allocated to NHS trusts but many have yet to start work and need to complete refresher training and receive their uniforms.

Some staff have complained they have struggled to find advice or information and many have tried to sign up with agencies who will bill the NHS at a premium.

One nurse told The Independent she felt she was “in limbo, but time is running out”. Another nurse said without proper training she would refuse to work on wards.

After being re-registered staff are asked to complete a survey of their skills and what they can offer which is then processed by seven regional hubs using 700 staff to process between 3,000 to 4,000 staff a day.

So far 10,000 have been contacted to say they are being processed and are having their criminal record status checked and many are being asked to complete mandatory online training.

Once this is completed their names are passed to the local NHS teams and hospitals who then take over their induction.

A source with knowledge of the process within NHS England said the teams were working as fast as possible but some people will not have heard back yet. They also admitted the process used by hospitals would vary across the country but efforts were being made to make sure those returning to work were treated properly.

One nurse in Lancashire, who previously worked in intensive care and A&E, told The Independent she had heard nothing after offering to work in her local hospital.

She said: “It would be easy for me to help. It was only a couple of years ago. I am ready and raring to go. I have applied to the local trust and I spoke to six members of their HR department and no one seems to know how to get me on the wards.

“I feel like this is something I need to do, this is why I became a nurse. I could be that extra body they need but I have heard nothing. No phone calls or emails.”

Professor Alison Leary, an expert in workforce modelling from London’s South Bank University, who was already registered with the NMC and wanted to re-join the NHS efforts said she had also struggled.

She said: “I have offered to help but so far I haven’t made much progress. There seem to be particular barriers if you’re not an NHS employee. There just doesn’t seem to be a deployment plan.

“A particular aspect of emergency planning is how you deploy a supplemental and volunteer workforce and it just doesn’t seem to have been thought through.”

One retired nurse in the Midlands who re-joined the nursing register after the government appeal, praised the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s process but added: “There was no advice about how to get back into practice or what to do next.”

She said she applied via NHS Professionals, the health service’s in-house supplier of agency staff, to re-join the workforce and was allocated to her local trust.

“I am still waiting to be given a uniform and still waiting for an induction or refresher training.

“Without that refresher training I would refuse to go back in because the risk to myself, they patients and my colleagues gets higher.

“It feels like there has been no strategic planning.”

NHS England said the 1,600 staff who had been fully processed were either already working or would be in the next two days.

It said newly returning staff would be treated as full employees given a full induction and offered appropriate training

NHS chief people officer Prerana Issar said: “More than 25,000 people have offered to re-join the NHS in less than two weeks - already more than 1,600 of those have been placed and are ready to play their part in meeting the unprecedented challenge posed by coronavirus, with thousands more to complete their training and induction over the coming days and weeks in line with the expected rise in cases.”

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