From burnout to breathing space: The King’s Fund

The King’s Fund recently published a sobering reflection on the state of the NHS workforce, titled From Burnout to Belief. It captures something many of us working alongside the NHS have seen first-hand: people are tired — not just physically, but emotionally. Staff are doing their best in circumstances that often feel out of their control. They’re firefighting, stretched thin, and at times, losing sight of the purpose that brought them into the health service in the first place.

At e18, we don’t pretend to have the solution to all of this. But we do believe there are ways to make things better — not tomorrow, not once another national programme lands, but today. And one of the practical tools we’ve seen make a difference is automation.

That might sound technical or impersonal at first. But when used well, automation is anything but. It’s a quiet form of support — one that removes repetitive admin, simplifies frustrating processes, and returns precious time to the people who need it most.

We’ve worked with Trusts where clinical and administrative staff were spending hours each week manually triaging referrals, updating trackers, logging into multiple systems, or re-keying the same information again and again. It’s not that the work wasn’t necessary. It’s just that the burden of it was falling entirely on people — people already working at capacity.

Across the country, we’re seeing teams benefit from automation in waiting list validation, pathology referrals, discharge follow-up, appointment bookings, and more. Each one is a small fix — but when you’re on the frontline, small fixes matter.

They mean less overtime catching up on admin. Fewer moments spent wrestling with systems instead of supporting patients. Less burnout from doing tasks that could, and should, be automated. It’s not about removing people from the process. It’s about removing the pressure from them.

The King’s Fund speaks about the need to embed wellbeing into the system — not as an afterthought, but as a thread running through everything. That resonates with us deeply. Because we’ve seen how the right digital tools, applied in the right way, can do more than just improve efficiency. They can improve morale. They can reduce stress. They can give people a moment to breathe.

This work doesn’t replace national reform. It doesn’t change the need for leadership, long-term funding, or better working conditions. But it is one thing we can do — one piece of the puzzle we can act on now.

There’s no blueprint for restoring belief in a pressured NHS. But listening to staff, removing unnecessary burdens, and giving back time — that feels like a good place to start.

Join the e18 Community today to discover how automation is reshaping the future of the NHS.