Scores more doctors and nurses working at Wigan's hospitals

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has 166 more professionally qualified clinical staff, including 16 extra doctors and 82 nurses and health visitors.

Overall the workforce has risen by 410 full-time equivalent members of staff, according to the new data from NHS Digital covering the month of July.

It reflects the picture both in the North West and nationwide, with nursing numbers in England rising by 13,718 and doctors by 7,810.

This included 80 former doctors and 147 nurses and health visitors who had returned to frontlines across the country during the coronavirus pandemic, though not all returners were included in the data, depending on their employment status.

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: “As a nation, we are immensely proud of our health and care staff who work round the clock to keep us safe. It is fantastic that there are over 1,721 more nurses and 1,276 more doctors in the north west of England working in our NHS and by the end of this Parliament we will deliver on our commitment of 50,000 more nurses.

“While this virus remains a perilous threat it is critical that the public observe restrictions in their area so our NHS and care staff can continue to do their incredible work. Help us to help you, so the NHS is always there for us in our hour of need.”

In Wigan there were a total of 5,531 staff at the end of July, up from 5,121 last year. Of these, 2,649 were professionally qualified clinical staff, up from 2,483 at the same time last year.

The number of doctors rose from 502 to 518, with consultant numbers rising from 192 to 206. There were 82 more nurses and health visitors, increasing from 1,308 to 1,390, and the number of midwives rose by six from 108 to 114.

Leadership roles at the trust were cut, from 35 to 29 senior managers and 80 to 76 managers.

Alison Balson, the trust’s director of workforce, said: “Around 6,500 staff make up our WWL family and we’re grateful for the contribution made by each and every one of them.

“WWL is committed to being a great place to work and for our residents to receive treatment.

“We continue to invest in our workforce, increasing the number of registered clinical staff as part of our workforce plan, which helps us to improve the services we can provide for our patients. Over recent months we have expanded our international recruitment programmes and are working closely with education providers to enhance our ‘grow our own’ approaches.

“Our supportive approach to professional development and well-being is central to our retention programme, ensuring that we keep our fantastic staff at WWL and are able to provide high quality healthcare services for the residents of the Wigan borough.”

The data also includes the number of workers within NHS Wigan Borough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which has risen from 129 to 139 in a year,

Professionally qualified clinical staff rose from 34 to 39, with the number of nurses and health visitors increasing from 17 to 25.

Management numbers also dropped within the CCG, from 17 to 13 senior managers and 23 to 16 managers.

This week the NHS announced £15m to strengthen mental health support for nurses, paramedics, therapists, pharmacists and support staff.

Staff will get rapid access to expanded mental health services that are being rolled out across as part of efforts to deal with the second wave of coronavirus.

Thanks for reading. If you value what we do and are able to support us, a digital subscription is just £1 for your first month. Try us today by clicking here