Under half hospital staff are ‘satisfied’ - The Bromsgrove Standard

Under half hospital staff are ‘satisfied’

Bromsgrove Editorial 1st May, 2014 Updated: 17th Oct, 2016   0

LESS than half of hospital staff surveyed in Worcestershire are satisfied with the care they give to patients.

The majority are also not enthusiastic about their job, do not look forward going to work and would not recommend Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust as a place to work.

But Trust bosses say scores in those areas are up on last year and better than the average score for other acute hospital trusts.

A total of 372 workers responded to the annual staff survey out of 850 that were sent the questionnaire between September and December last year.




Just 46 per cent said they were satisfied with the quality of care they give to patients, 42 per cent looked forward to going to work and only 48 per cent would recommend it as a place to work.

Chief executive Penny Venables said she was disappointed the figures were not higher but they reflected the pressure on the whole of the NHS system.


“I employ 5,500 staff and only 372 responded to the survey so I think there is something about that but clearly it would be great if 100 per cent of staff said everything was great but the important thing for me is the benchmarking shows where we are in terms of the NHS as a whole.” she said.

“The percentage of staff satisfied with the quality of care to patients may be under 50 per cent but staff here feel better about that than the rest of the NHS.”

Prof Julian Bion, Trust associate non-director, told a recent board meeting part of the problem was the demoralisation of staff within the NHS overall but they needed to understand what they could do internally to make people feel more positive.

“We should be proud to work for the NHS and proud to come to work in a place like this. I want to get hold of someone by the lapels and give them a good shake because we are very lucky to work for the health service.”

Areas of concern included 73 per cent of staff reporting they had to work extra hours and 35 per cent saying they felt under pressure to come into work when they were unwell.

But 60 per cent of those surveyed said the Trust did act on the concerns of staff and patients – nine per cent higher than the average for other Trusts.

Bev Edgar, director of human resources, said a detailed action plan was being developed to look at issues raised within the survey while the use of focus groups and the introduction of the staff Friends and Family Test would provide more detailed feedback.

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