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As the first frosts arrive and flu jab reminders start to be sent out, the NHS prepares itself for the heightened pressures of winter. However, it’s not just the 140,700 NHS doctors and 377,600 nurses who are steeling themselves to cope with the influx of patients that winter brings, but the 251,200 non-clinical support staff who ensure that patients are warm and well-fed and that hospitals remain clean and germ-free. Here we look at the importance of non-clinical operational efficiency, especially in the winter months, and see how the NHS is addressing staff shortages and rising demand in a cost-effective way.

Winter pressures

The NHS deals with around 600 million ‘patient contacts’ every year. That’s 1.7 million interactions with GPs, community specialists, hospital departments, 111 calls, and ambulances every single day.

Winter often brings a surge in healthcare needs, with a 10-15% increase in demand. Admissions increase, waiting times are longer and both acute and primary care are under greater pressure.

The reasons for this include:

• Illness – respiratory illnesses, such as colds, flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and norovirus infections increase during winter and affect vulnerable people such as those with serious health conditions and elderly people
• Weather – when temperatures fall people with underlying health conditions become more prone to cardiovascular and respiratory conditions. People also fall over or have other types of accidents when it’s icy or when snow falls
• Staff shortages – NHS workers succumb to viruses and need time off leading to staff shortages on both wards and in support services. 

These factors lead to bed shortages which causes delays in admissions, increasing the pressure on A&E departments, other wards, discharges and ongoing care. All of which contribute towards intense levels of pressure on NHS staff and facilities.

Non-clinical operations

Non-clinical operations play a crucial role in meeting the increased workload that the NHS experiences in the winter months.

Staff such as domestics, cleaners, maintenance, porters, caterers and drivers all play their part in making hospital stays and visits more pleasant and less intimidating, as well as keeping patients fed and warm, and maintaining dignity. In fact, fundamental non-clinical care such as providing good nutrition and maintaining warmth can significantly improve recovery rates, lowering bed occupancy by 15% during the winter months, alleviating pressure on a system that’s already overloaded. This is especially true of elderly and vulnerable patients, many of whom remain in hospital despite being classed as ‘medically fit’ because of gaps in the health and social care system, and who require domestic-style care within a hospital setting. The NHS Food and Drink Strategy, for example, aims to ensure that organisations deliver quality, nutritious, sustainable food and drinks for patients to aid recovery. The NHS regards healthy food as a vital part of patient care, regarding it as ‘medicine’ in itself, increasing the quality of hospital stays and reducing their length.

Cleanliness is another vital aspect of hospital stays – preventing infections and increasing comfort for patients, staff and visitors, particularly in the winter months when colds, flus and other viruses are prevalent. Domestic service staff are responsible for cleaning the wards, corridors, theatres and other communal areas, delivering food to patients, and ensuring a plentiful supply of clean linen, among other things.

Maintaining the fabric of the NHS’s buildings is another important part of non-clinical operations, meaning that electricians, plumbers, window cleaners, carpenters and joiners all play their part in ensuring that the NHS can function in the most effective way.

Meeting rising demand

Demand for NHS services increases year-on-year; new technologies and medicines increase our lifespans and offer hope to millions of people every year. However, successive governments have focused on efficiencies, committing to do more with the available resources. One common theme among cost-saving initiatives over recent years has been the reduction in the use of temporary staffing spend ‘to a maximum of 3.2% of the total pay bill across 2024/25’. In 2022/23 the NHS wage bill (excluding GPs) was £71.1 billion so the maximum target figure for agency staff spend is £2,275,200,000 – this includes all staff, both medical and non-clinical.

It may sound like a significant amount and generates a lot of bad press, but the majority of this money is spent on clinical staff. The Kings Fund notes that vacancy rates in September 2023 were 8.4% (121,000 full time equivalent) for medical staff and 9.9% (152,000) for social care. Retention is also an issue for the NHS, with 154,000 people leaving their roles by September 2023, and in social care the numbers are even higher, with 390,000 quitting by the same time.

So, while ‘agency staffing costs’ creates sensationalist headlines, in fact non-clinical agency staff make up a tiny proportion of this spend and, as we’ve seen, contribute enormously towards the safe and effective running of hospitals and quality patient care.

Cost effective staffing

In order for hospitals to run efficiently, for patients to be kept warm and fed, for clean linen to be available, and for the food provided to be nutritious and wholesome, non-clinical staff are the essential but often unseen factor. Non-clinical staff members provide support to the doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, mental health workers and social care workers that enable them to function efficiently, but almost more importantly, offer comfort and empathy to patients who find themselves in an unfamiliar and sometimes frightening environment. And those staff members that are supplied by agencies such as TaskMaster provide cost-effective, efficient services that are the backbone of the NHS.

TaskMaster has over 20 years’ experience of providing non-clinical staff to the NHS, in a variety of supporting roles, from cleaners to caretakers, and from litter pickers to lunchtime supervisors to meet peaks in workload and at times of staff shortages, as experienced during winter pressures. We’re a long-standing NHS partner and are dedicated to finding the right talent, whether that’s temporary, temp to perm, fixed term or contractors, to not only ensure that hospitals function smoothly, but also that patient outcomes are positive and healthy, reducing the strain on the NHS in the darkest of winters.

For more information on how you can engage the vital non-clinical staff the NHS needs this winter contact us now.