A Systemic Failure: Dr. Wen Wang tackles NHS Workforce Retention Crisis at Westminster
09 January 2026
At a high-level parliamentary roundtable on December 8, Dr. Wen Wang raised the quantitative flexible labour practices crippling the NHS. Despite a national staffing shortage, Dr. Wang revealed a startling 30,000 resident doctors remain unemployed (Hansard, 2025). She attributed this systematic failure to the precarious six-month contracts typically offered to international medical graduates, who accounted for 68% new intakes in 2023 (GMC, 2024). These short-term roles, she argued, create a structural bottleneck that preventing long-term commitment to training posts.
To fix the broken pipeline and to retain talents, Dr. Wang urged the government to:
- End “Gig Economy” Medicine: Shift away from insecure, flexible contracts that drive away talent.
- Empower NHS Trusts: Extend the current annual financial audit to longer periods to allow for long-term workforce planning.
- Cultivate HR Capacity: Bolster the ability of smaller NHS Trusts to navigate complex international recruitment and retain staff.
“We cannot build a sustainable NHS on the back of employment insecurity,” Dr. Wang warned, calling for immediate oversight of recruitment practices to ensure the health service’s future.
