The NHS is encouraging retired doctors to return to the health service to help bring down long waits for elective care, with the aim of making it easier and more flexible for staff to return to the NHS as part of the Long Term Workforce Plan.
The NHS Emeritus pilot scheme, first announced by NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard in June, will initially run for a year across England and help to bring down waits for elective care, but if successful has the potential to be expanded to cover other work areas.
It is expected Emeritus consultants will be able to start carrying out appointments from next month following the full registration process, which includes pre-employment checks and face-to-face interviews with NHS Professionals.
A cloud-based platform has been developed which links recently-retired consultants – who still hold a licence to practice – with secondary care providers who need additional help with their waiting lists.
Providers upload the activity they would like supported, which could range from outpatient appointments, specialist advice requests and education and training support.
The Emeritus consultants can then express their interest in undertaking the specific work listed, and providers choose the consultant whose skillset and availability best matches the appointments they need covered, which are scheduled and arranged with patients in the normal way and can be carried out in-person or remotely.
More than four-fifths of people on the waiting list require an outpatient appointment – such as a follow-up for cardiology or rheumatology – rather than a surgical procedure, and the new platform means consultants carrying out remote appointments could be based anywhere in England, which can help those hospitals in areas with workforces shortages in a particular specialty, higher demand for services, or more remote areas where travel is difficult for patients.
The platform aims to provide Trusts with an alternative to using agency staff, while allowing experienced specialists who are nearing retirement but want to keep working in the NHS longer, or recently-retired consultants who want to re-join, with a route back in with more flexibility. Workforce data shows about 1,000 consultants leave the NHS for retirement each year. The new tool is one initiative being rolled out to help deliver the NHS Elective Recovery Plan.
Stella Vig, NHS national clinical director for elective care, said: “The NHS prides itself on its hard-working and committed staff, and it is often the most experienced and knowledgeable clinicians who are lost to the NHS once they retire, even though they still have a lot more they can give to benefit patients.
“Many have said they want to be able to keep giving back to the health service once they have retired, but in a more flexible way – through the NHS Emeritus initiative, we can provide an opportunity for consultants to continue to work in the NHS in a way that fits in with their life and schedule, and ensures the NHS can still benefit from their skills and knowledge, whether that be through providing training and education, or continuing to see patients and help add much-needed capacity as we work toward our aims of bringing down the longest waits for elective care.
“It’s a simple concept, but one that we hope will benefit everyone taking part – and we envisage that this is just the beginning, with the potential to broaden NHS Emeritus out to a wider cohort and to include different types of work in the future, which could benefit thousands of patients across the country.”
