The British Society for Haematology is gathering nationwide data for a report which will offer insights into the status of the UK’s clinical haematology workforce. Our focus is on the clinical workforce as we do not want to duplicate the RCPath workforce study currently underway which focuses on laboratory workforce and scientific staffing.
Our report will be launched later in the year and its aims are:
- to present a detailed picture of the clinical haematology workforce – at both national and regional levels
- to build an understanding of the types of Haematology teams that exist in 2019 (including nursing, pharmacist, laboratory and management/support roles)
- identify and highlight particular strains and issues relating to staffing departments across the UK
- highlight the central role of the discipline
- stimulate debate at the highest levels on solutions to the challenges you face
Next week APCO Worldwide, (a consultancy we are working with to help gather and analyse this information) will be sharing questionnaires with the Freedom of Information contacts at NHS Boards and Trusts. This is a method that in other cases has been shown to yield a very high response rate compared to a regular survey approach. This project is led by our External Affairs Committee and the questionnaires which we have developed consultation with the RCPath contain a mixture of quantitative and qualitative questions on topics such as the make-up of the workforce, vacancies, workforce strains and the impact of these on patients.
We expect the questionnaire may be passed to Haematology Clinical Leads (or similar) to provide answers. If you find yourself in receipt of the questionnaire, we kindly ask that you review it and complete it to the best of your ability; all data will be anonymised. We are aware that some of the information requested may take some time to obtain and appreciate any information that you are able to provide.
APCO will also be conducting a number of in-depth interviews with a range of haematology professionals of differing sub-specialisms and levels. These will explore the main findings from the questionnaire and allow us to include the voice of the professional in the final report, alongside the statistics.
If you have any queries on how to complete the questions, you or your Freedom of Information lead can send these directly to Perran Harvey, email [email protected].
If you have any questions regarding the project, please contact Saskia Ottignon, email: [email protected].