NHS workforce plan for Wales: increase overseas recruitment and cut use of agency staff

The Welsh government has unveiled a workforce plan involving more overseas recruitment, less use of agency staff, and efforts to make NHS jobs more attractive.

Doctors’ representatives, while welcoming the plan, voiced concerns about the need for quick action and the plan’s lack of clear targets. They called for detailed vacancy data to be published by the summer to help match recruitment with demand.

The Welsh government’s National Workforce Implementation Plan,1 published on 1 February, outlined various ways of tackling current shortages, with numerous deadline target dates. The NHS Wales workforce had reached record levels with more than 105 000 staff directly employed, said the government, but this was insufficient to meet the expected increasing demand for healthcare workers.

Eluned Morgan, Welsh minister for health and social services, said, “We are …