news story

7th June 2006

Local NHS Staff Undervalued and Demoralised

A recently published official survey of staff at North Bristol NHS Trust has shown that growing numbers of staff are feeling undervalued and demoralised, according to analysis by Northavon MP Steve Webb.

The MP was commenting on the results of the NHS National Staff Survey 2005, which was published recently by the independent Healthcare Commission, and which contains results for each major acute trust in the country. Key findings from the latest survey of North Bristol Trust staff (based only on changes from previous surveys judged to be "statistically significant") are:

*   an increase since 2003 in the proportion of staff intending to leave;
*   a reduction in staff job satisfaction;
*   a big fall in the proportion of staff who had had "well-structured" appraisals in the last year;

The publication of a national survey makes it possible to see where any individual trust ranks in the country in terms of staff morale and management quality. Compared with other Trusts, North Bristol:

*   scores among the worst fifth on "work-life" balance for its staff, with growing numbers working beyond their contracted hours;
*   scores among the worst fifth for "effective action in response to violence or harassment";
*   scored below average for acute trusts for job satisfaction;

Not all of the findings of the survey were negative. The survey found that almost all North Bristol Trust staff had had training or development of some sort over the previous year, and that fewer staff reported seeing potentially harmful errors, near misses or incidents than in previous years.

Commenting on the findings, local MP Steve Webb said:

"Frontline staff providing patient care are the most precious resource in the NHS. Yet this new survey shows that growing numbers of people who work in our local hospitals are feeling increasingly undervalued and dissatisfied. In part this is about national government policy putting pressure on hospitals to hit targets. But the survey does raise questions about the management style at North Bristol Trust. I hope that the Trust management will listen to what their own employees are saying and take steps to ensure that these concerns are addressed. Unless they do so, we risk losing loyal and highly-trained staff from our local hospitals".