{"title":"Can wage changes solve the labour crisis in the National Health Service?","authors":"Xingzuo Zhou, Jolene Skordis, Junjian Yi, Yiang Li, Jonathan Clarke, Hongkun Zhang","doi":"10.1007/s10198-024-01737-4","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study aimed to examine the healthcare labour demand and supply elasticity regarding wage in the National Health Service (NHS) in England amid a labour crisis. A simultaneous error-correction regression analysis was conducted using secondary data from the NHS and Office for National Statistics from 2009 Q3 to 2022 Q1. Findings indicate both labour demand and supply of HCHS doctors in the NHS are highly inelastic with respect to real wages, with only a 0.1% decrease in NHS staff hiring and a 0.8% rise in NHS staff's willingness to work as full-time equivalents per 10% wage increase. Approximately 22% of the wage disequilibrium adjusts quarterly, indicating moderate speed of wage adjustment. Our results suggest that wage setting is not a sufficient solution to the labour crisis. Innovative and sustainable solutions are needed to reduce the demand for skilled health labour and increase the supply of health labour.</p>","PeriodicalId":51416,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Health Economics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Journal of Health Economics","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10198-024-01737-4","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This study aimed to examine the healthcare labour demand and supply elasticity regarding wage in the National Health Service (NHS) in England amid a labour crisis. A simultaneous error-correction regression analysis was conducted using secondary data from the NHS and Office for National Statistics from 2009 Q3 to 2022 Q1. Findings indicate both labour demand and supply of HCHS doctors in the NHS are highly inelastic with respect to real wages, with only a 0.1% decrease in NHS staff hiring and a 0.8% rise in NHS staff's willingness to work as full-time equivalents per 10% wage increase. Approximately 22% of the wage disequilibrium adjusts quarterly, indicating moderate speed of wage adjustment. Our results suggest that wage setting is not a sufficient solution to the labour crisis. Innovative and sustainable solutions are needed to reduce the demand for skilled health labour and increase the supply of health labour.
期刊介绍:
The European Journal of Health Economics is a journal of Health Economics and associated disciplines. The growing demand for health economics and the introduction of new guidelines in various European countries were the motivation to generate a highly scientific and at the same time practice oriented journal considering the requirements of various health care systems in Europe. The international scientific board of opinion leaders guarantees high-quality, peer-reviewed publications as well as articles for pragmatic approaches in the field of health economics. We intend to cover all aspects of health economics:
• Basics of health economic approaches and methods
• Pharmacoeconomics
• Health Care Systems
• Pricing and Reimbursement Systems
• Quality-of-Life-Studies The editors reserve the right to reject manuscripts that do not comply with the above-mentioned requirements. The author will be held responsible for false statements or for failure to fulfill the above-mentioned requirements.
Officially cited as: Eur J Health Econ