NHS staff turnover figures shows workforce contracted by 2 per cent

However, the overall figure masks significant regional variations: in the South East Coast region, 12 per cent more staff left than joined, while the North West had 61 per cent more leavers than recruits.

See table below for regional numbers

Provisional NHS Information Centre statistics highlight regional variations in the loss of staff through redundancies, frozen posts and changed skill mix. In the year analysed, 96,718 staff left the NHS, including special health authorities, in England – 31 per cent more than the 73,790 who joined it.

Southampton University chair of health services research Peter Griffiths said: “It might be that the regions are acting to different timescales in terms of responding to financial pressures. They [the North West] may be starting a little bit earlier [than other regions].”

The North West’s work in developing workforce information meant it was more likely to have “robust benchmarking data”, allowing it to “re-profile” its workforce, he said.

The Information Centre figures are based on headcount and exclude trainee and locum doctors, bank staff, GPs and some other primary care staff. HSJ compared the data with average headcount figures for each region between August 2010 and 2011 (see table below).

The figures also show that over the year, 21 per cent more doctors, excluding locums and trainees, joined the English NHS than left it.

But 13 per cent fewer nurses, midwives and health visitors were recruited to the NHS compared with the number that left it. Leavers from these groups outnumbered joiners in all but two regions – London and the South East Coast.

An NHS North West spokeswoman said: “Workforce reductions have been achieved [through] a range of measures, including highly successful voluntary severance schemes and programmes to remove long term vacant posts. In percentage terms, 7.4 per cent of staff left between August 2010 and August 2011, with 4.6 per cent of staff starting work with the NHS in the North West during that time. This is very much in line with other regions.”