Further evidence that the health and wellbeing of NHS staff must be a priority for NHS organisations if they want anyone to join their workforce, stay, or excel.
This survey has been conducted every year since 2003, although not all of the 303 organisations that completed this year’s survey will have the same amount of historic data. Out of the 1.1 million staff invited to take part, 497,117 completed the survey. The summarised data below concerns the 230 NHS Trusts, not the non-trust participants (such as Clinical Commissioning Groups). Questions and results are split into 10 broad themes by the NHS England Survey Co-ordination Centre: 1) Equality, diversity and inclusion, 2) Health and wellbeing, 3) Immediate managers, 4) Morale, 5) Quality of appraisals, 6) Quality of care, 7) Safe environment –bullying and harassment, 8) Safe environment – violence, 9) Safety culture and 10) Staff engagement. The results of the survey reveal definite room for improvement in relation to health and wellbeing:
- 1% of staff reported they were satisfied with the opportunities for flexible working
- 6% said their trust takes positive action on health and wellbeing
- 5% said they had gone to work despite not feeling well enough to perform their duties in the last 3 months
- 6% said they had experienced musculoskeletal problems as a result of their work in the last 12 months
- 8% reported feeling unwell due to work related stress in the last 12 months
These results help us to understand why 15.7% said they would leave their organisation as soon as they could find another job and 29.9% said they often thought about leaving their organisation. The stark reality is that if those people leave, the health and wellbeing of those remaining will further decrease, as their workload increases, to cover the gaps. This is further evidence that the health and wellbeing of NHS staff must be taken seriously to not only create an adequately sized workforce, but to sustain it and see it flourish. Improvements in patient care and outcomes cannot be achieved without this.
To read more click on the links below:
NHS Staff Survey 2018. National results briefing. Survey Co-ordination Centre, NHS England.
Results for individual trusts on the NHS Staff Survey Results Website