Retention of the clinical and ambulance workforce in the English NHS.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Retention of the clinical and ambulance workforce in English NHS hospitals: variations, trends and effects on patient outcomes.
IRAS ID
271302
Contact name
Giuseppe Moscelli
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Surrey
Duration of Study in the UK
6 years, 4 months, 28 days
Research summary
This research project will investigate the economics of hospital workforce retention. This under-researched topic is highly policy-relevant, not only due to the actual English NHS workforce retention crisis, but also because workforce retention may be a key factor to increase efficiencies in the provision of healthcare, especially in a publicly funded healthcare system with regulated salaries like the English NHS.
The project will investigate two main research questions: 1) understanding the drivers of hospital workers’ retention in the English NHS; 2) understanding the impacts of staff retention on the patient care and if there is any association between the two.
It may be that increased staff retention results in worse patient outcomes, but also that staff prefer to work in places where general conditions (e.g. local funding, equipment, protocols) are better and thus their patients have better outcomes (e.g. lower mortality). To separate these causes and understand how they impact patient care, the research team will look at the shifters (e.g. Brexit referendum) that impact staff retention only but have no direct effect on patients’ outcomes, if not through an indirect effect due to the impact on staff retention. Essentially, the study will look at changes in clinical outcomes following changes in retention of staff over several years.
The investigation will make use of high-quality large administrative datasets with records on the hospital workforce and patients’ outcomes (e.g. mortality, readmissions, length of stay) for Acute and Mental Health English hospitals only, from 2009/10 to 2021/22. The study will include all NHS staff and patients as this will allow answering the research questions both at the national and the regional level.
The analysis will last for 4 years, but it will take at least 6 years from the start of the project to publish most of the research outcomes.REC name
London - City & East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/LO/0105
Date of REC Opinion
20 Feb 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion