A survey of over 200 NHS and social care managers in the UK to understand how much time is spent on admin tasks instead of patient care, and the impact this is having, has uncovered surprising results.

The research was conducted by Florence, a digital company which is attempting to tackle the global healthcare workforce shortage. It paints a staggering picture of the NHS’ admin churn through respondents’ replies:

• 45% said the time spent on admin is impacting service users’ health and care – and 6% said it has cost lives
• 35% felt time is being wasted due to outdated technology and working methods
• A third said if the government does not invest in technology will cost lives as the sector lags far behind and simply has too much paperwork
• 46% said there’s a need to “create less paperwork, form-filling and box-ticking”

This is having a huge impact on staff morale with 38% feeling workers are working very hard for little reward, and that the care industry is “full of good people unable to make the difference they would like”. Meanwhile 22% say they have lost staff due to admin workloads, 24% have considered leaving the sector themselves, and 48% say it prevents them from doing the job they feel they should be doing.

Respondents highlighted the top time wasters as rota scheduling (43%), documentation and record-keeping (30%) and speaking to agencies to secure cover staff (21%).

Ryan Wicks, a care home manager in Essex, told Florence: “More time is being spent in front of a computer screen rather than talking to people. Paperwork is increasing. It feels like the paperwork is more important than the care now.”

Charles Armitage, CEO and co-founded of Florence, said: “With care services under such a persistent level of pressure due to patient numbers and a lack of budget, we need to be smarter with how we utilise our healthcare workers’ time. Technological solutions are the future in this respect; the technology we have at Florence can reduce a vast proportion of the time spent by healthcare workers on administration, especially regarding staffing. But that must come alongside increased funding from the government. Additional funding and the use of tech is a clear solution to some of the administrative difficulties the industry is currently facing. Once those are addressed, the road ahead will look much clearer.”