𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗖𝗘𝗢𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲.

𝗔 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗲. 𝗔 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲.

The Health Service Journal has been tracking this. And the numbers are not small.

I am not here to comment on individual decisions or circumstances. Every departure has its own story and those stories belong to the people living them.

But I do want to name what this pattern does to everyone else.

To the clinical director watching from two levels below. To the ward manager holding a team together while the structure above them shifts again. To the senior nurse who has been through four CEOs in six years and is quietly wondering whether anything ever actually changes.

That experience — of watching instability at the top while trying to deliver at the front — accumulates. It shows up as cynicism that didn’t used to be there. As effort that quietly reduces. As good people making quiet decisions to leave.

This is not a failure of individual resilience. It is a systemic pattern with a human cost that rarely makes the headline.

The HSJ covers the departures. Nobody covers what it does to the people who stay.

I work with those people. In organisations and as individuals. Because that cost is real and it is nameable and it does not have to be permanent.

What are you noticing in your organisation right now?