Understaffing in the NHS is creating a serious risk to patient safety MPs have claimed in a damning report.

The cross-party Health and Social Care Committee said health and social care services in England are facing “the greatest workforce crisis in their history” and the Government has no credible strategy to make the situation better.

In the new report with research from the Nuffield Trust, it has been revealed that NHS England is short of 12,000 hospital doctors and more than 50,000 nurses and midwives.

It said maternity services are “under unsustainable pressure”, while the number of full-time equivalent GPs also fell by more than 700 over three years to March 2022.

An extra 475,000 jobs will be needed in health, according to projections, with an extra 490,000 needed in social care by the early part of the next decade.

The report said: “In the face of this, the Government has shown a marked reluctance to act decisively.

“The workforce plan promised in the spring has not yet been published and will be a ‘framework’ with no numbers, which we are told could potentially follow in yet another report later this year.”

MPs said that while some progress has been made towards a target of recruiting 50,000 nurses, the Government is set to miss its target to recruit 6,000 more GPs, as promised in the Conservative Party manifesto.

“The persistent understaffing of the NHS now poses a serious risk to staff and patient safety both for routine and emergency care. It also costs more as patients present later with more serious illness.

“But most depressing for many on the frontline is the absence of any credible strategy to address it.”

The report said staff are under pressure and the NHS loses millions of full-time equivalent days to staff sickness caused by anxiety, stress and depression.

“The result is that many in an exhausted workforce are considering leaving — and if they do pressure will increase still further on their colleagues,” the study said, adding that some simple things are not in place, such as access to hot food and drink on shifts and flexible working.

MPs said the Government’s “refusal” to make workforce planning data public “means that the basic question which every health and care worker is asking: are we training enough staff to meet patient need? will remain unanswered”.

The report also criticises NHS pension arrangements which are leading to senior doctors reducing their working hours owing to facing hefty tax bills.

Health and Social Care Committee chairman and Tory MP Jeremy Hunt said: “We now face the greatest workforce crisis in history in the NHS and in social care with still no idea of the number of additional doctors, nurses and other professionals we actually need.

“NHS professionals know there is no silver bullet to solve this problem but we should at least be giving them comfort that a plan is in place. This must be a top priority for the new prime minister.”

Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, which is part of the NHS Confederation, said the report “once again highlights the extent of the workforce crisis now facing both the NHS and social care”.

He said tens of thousands of staff vacancies “at the last count and an exhausted workforce present one of the greatest challenges to the recovery of the economy and the return of safe, high-quality health services for all”.

He added health leaders are “beyond worried that the Government has shown a sustained reluctance to act decisively on NHS and social care staffing and echo the Committee’s concerns that the lack of long-term planning and investment risks the Government’s plans to tackle the waiting list backlog and poses a serious risk to both staff and patient safety”.