Aging staff for the terminally ill
Thursday 8th December 2011
Care for the terminally ill may be in danger because of a staff shortage and an aging workforce in specialist areas such as occupational therapy jobs.
A survey by the National Council for Palliative Care (NCPC) has shown that the amount of nurses in palliative care fell by 6.9 per cent from 2008 to 2010. The news comes after recent figures showed that the number of people dying in England and Wales will rise from 500,000 to 586,000 by 2030.
The results highlighted that a large percentage of sectors had staff over the age of 50. Jobs such as occupational therapists had 25.3 per cent over this age, whilst physiotherapists had 36.3 per cent.
It means that many specialist care jobs have an average vacancy rate of 8.7 per cent.
Simon Chapman, NCPC director of policy and parliamentary affairs, said: "Although we are fortunate to be able to count on a great many experienced staff and a growing recognition that end-of-life care must be everyone's business, an ageing palliative care workforce could pose real recruitment and training problems in the future and needs to be urgently addressed."
Due to the new reforms many workers within the NHS are being forced to retire later in a way to get the best pension payout.
written by Martin Lambert
Related articles
Occupational therapist recognised with award
The importance of occupational therapy has been recognised at the West Sussex County Council annual awards ceremony. Diana...
Friday 18th May 2012
Cambian Group offering occupational therapy...
Cambian Group has announced the opening of three new centres offering occupational therapy services. The specialist care company...
Thursday 3rd May 2012
New Peterborough care campus under construction
Work on a care campus which is offering a host of treatment facilities in Peterborough has gotten underway. The £10...
Thursday 5th April 2012
Related Audiology Jobs
Register your interest in Mediplacements for the latest in locum Audiology jobs within the West Midlands. We recruit for Audiology...
Full infoLocum Audiologist in Paediatrics needed for an on-going job opportunity in Surrey. We require an experienced locum Audiologist...
Full infoRegister your interest in Mediplacements for the latest locum Audiology opportunities in Wales. We offer exciting Audiology...
Full info