I walked into a hospital not long ago, and the waiting room was packed. Every chair taken, every nurse rushing past with a look that said they hadn’t had a break in hours. It made me wonder: how much more can we expect from the people holding the system together?
The numbers tell the storey
In the UK, nearly 170,000 NHS staff quit in 2023 alone, with stress and burnout topping the list of reasons. A survey from the British Medical Association found 44% of GPs are struggling with workload, compared with just 29% of respondents overall. The survey, carried out last Autumn, found GPs were twice as likely to identify ‘pressure on workloads’ as the most significant barrier to providing good patient care (32% compared to 16%). These aren’t small numbers. This is a workforce that’s being stretched to its breaking point.
What does that mean for patients
When staff are overworked, patients feel it. Appointments take longer to schedule. Waiting times for A&E stretch into hours. Medicines are delayed. It’s not because people don’t care, it’s because there are fewer hands to do more work. The irony is clear: the people who dedicate their lives to saving others are running out of capacity to save themselves from exhaustion.
A parallel with business
Running a start-up, I see a softer version of the same problem. When the team is too small and the workload too heavy, mistakes creep in and morale drops. Unlike the NHS, though, we can hire faster, bring in tech to lighten the load, or say no to work that overwhelms us. Healthcare workers don’t have that option. A patient walking in is not a client you can turn away.
So what can be done?
1. Invest in support staff, not just doctors and nurses.
2. Adopt smarter delivery models for medicines and supplies.
3. Free healthcare workers from tasks that technology and logistics partners can handle more efficiently.
Hospitals aren’t failing because the people inside don’t care. They’re failing because we’ve left them carrying too much.
And here’s the point I keep coming back to: when we design services that take pressure off healthcare workers, whether it’s by making deliveries faster, simplifying supply chains, or reducing admin, we’re not just helping them. We’re helping every patient waiting on the other side of the door.
