Shortage of surgeons might threaten NHS targets

There is a shortage of ward beds, high-dependency and intensive care
unit beds, nursing staff, operating department practitioners, scrub nurses
and anaesthetists. Patients are cancelled routinely for any of the above
reasons, but almost never for want of a surgeon. In this situation an
expansion of surgeons' numbers will not increase productivity but only
decrease the level of skill.

Competing interests:
None declared

I write in response to Dr Nawaz’s concerns regarding the apparently
conflicting reports as to the requirement of staff within the NHS recently
published in the BMJ.

The first sentence in Zosia Kmietowicz’s article (1) should read ‘an
additional 3,000 “surgical consultant posts” are needed for England and
Wales over the next five years…’. This clarifies the point; namely that
there are not 3000 unfilled vacancies being secretly hidden away from
international applicants, but positions which at present do not exist.
Furthermore, the highlighted shortage is for senior medical personnel,
whilst the vast majority of international medical graduates arriving in
the UK (as stated in Career Focus (2)) are competing for junior training
posts in which competition, even amongst current UK residents, is already
considerable.

The UK not only welcomes, but relies on the contribution of the
international medical community. However, the situation is currently far
from perfect with highly trained doctors often wasting both their skills
and finances. Surely it is more responsible to highlight these problems to
potential applicants than to pretend the corridors of the NHS are paved
with gold.

In the extremely unlikely event that the government were able to find
funding to create enough training and consultant posts to address this
shortage (along with the inextricably linked requirement for
anaesthetists, associated health care professionals, theatre space and
beds; and not forgetting the shortages in every other medical specialty)
then I am sure that far from publishing warnings, the BMJ would be
actively encouraging applications from abroad to fill the large number of
vacancies created.

Yours sincerely,

Nick Hayes

1. Zosia Kmietowicz – ‘Shortage of surgeons might threaten NHS
targets’ BMJ 2005; 330: 379

2. Graham Easton – ‘Warning all junior overseas doctors.’ BMJ Career
Focus 2005; 330: 63-65

Competing interests:
None declared

Dear All,

It's a welcome initiative in realism if it was actually to be
implemented!

The ground facts are very much in favour of not only the actual need
of individual surgeons and specialist surgeons,esp. the more experienced
and equally qualified from Overseas countries,but also of the resources
for infrastructure for an effective team.

At the other end,the much awaited functioning of PGMETB is being
postponed so as other important day to day decisions in reaching NHS
targets due to lack of proper and adequate resources.So can the
authorities put the blue print open to public in this age of Freedom of
Information in the actual interests of our patients and our ever-dedicated
NHS staff?

Isn't it long time overdue?

Yours truly

Narender Seshadri,MS(Oph.)

Competing interests:
Prospective Eye Surgeon-James Paget Hospital