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CSJ THE CLINICAL SERVICES JOURNAL Editor


Louise Frampton louiseframpton@stepcomms.com


Technical Editor Kate Woodhead Business Manager


Dean Walford deanwalford@stepcomms.com


Sales Executive Holly Goldring hollygoldring@stepcomms.com


Journal Administration


Katy Cockle katycockle@stepcomms.com


Design Steven Dillon Publisher


Geoff King geoffking@stepcomms.com


Publishing Director Trevor Moon trevormoon@stepcomms.com


THE CLINICAL SERVICES JOURNAL is published in January, February, March, April, May, June, August, September, October and November by Step Communications Ltd, Step House, North Farm Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 3DR, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1892 779999 Fax: +44 (0)1892 616177 Email: info@clinicalservicesjournal.com Web: www.clinicalservicesjournal.com


© Step Communications Ltd, 2021 Single copy: £19.00 per issue. Annual journal subscription: UK £114.00 Overseas: £150.00


ISSN No. 1478-5641


The Publisher is unable to take any responsibility for views expressed by contributors. Editorial views are not necessarily shared by the journal. Readers are expressly advised that while the contents of this publication are believed to be accurate, correct and complete, no reliance should be placed upon its contents as being applicable to any particular circumstances. This publication is copyright under the Berne Convention and the International Copyright Convention. All rights reserved, apart from any copying under the UK Copyright Act 1956, part 1, section 7. Multiple copies of the contents of the publication without permission is always illegal.


The NHS Staff Survey is one of the largest workforce surveys in the world and has been conducted every year since 2003. It asks NHS staff in England about their experiences of working for their respective NHS organisations and over 1.2 million NHS employees in England were invited to participate between September and December 2020. The latest survey reveals there is a need to improve workplace experiences for staff. Only a third (33.4%) said their Trust ‘definitely takes positive action on health and wellbeing’. While this has improved since 2019 (up from 29.3%), this is an area where healthcare leaders clearly need to do better. A staggering 44% reported feeling unwell as a result of work- related stress in the last 12 months – staff have faced unprecedented pressures, fear, stress and trauma during the pandemic, and this will have driven this significant increase over the past year. Healthcare leaders will need to address the growing mental health crisis as a matter of urgency. As the NHS faces a backlog of surgery and diagnostics, the pressures on staff are set to increase even further and leaders will need to provide a caring and supportive environment, as well as access to mental health services. For over a quarter (26.5%), working conditions at their organisation have become so intolerable that they ‘often think about leaving’, while only 38.4% agreed that there are enough staff at their organisation for them to do their job properly. Many NHS employees also reported that they do not feel safe to speak up and that a blame culture persists. We know, from the Mid Staffs inquiry both of these factors make hospitals less safe for patients.


Only 65.6% of staff agreed that they


‘felt safe to speak up about anything that concerned them in their organisation’. Agreement was lowest in Ambulance Trusts (57.7%) where 20.6% of staff said they did not feel safe to speak up about their concerns. Worryingly, only 60.9% said their organisation treats staff who are involved in an error, near miss or incident fairly; 72.5% said they would feel secure raising concerns about unsafe clinical practice, but only 60.4% were confident that their organisation would address their concern.


APRIL 2021


While the report states that there have been some improvements since 2019, these are not statistics that the NHS can be proud of. Furthermore, the number of staff reporting discrimination at work has increased to its highest level in five years – up from 7.7% in 2019 to 8.4%. These findings follow earlier research from King’s College London which showed that nearly half of ICU staff met the threshold for PTSD, severe anxiety or problem drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, more than one in eight


Only 65.6% of staff agreed that they ‘felt safe to speak up about anything that concerned them in their organisation’


respondents (13%) reported frequent thoughts of being better off dead, or of hurting themselves in the past two weeks. Lead author, Professor Neil Greenberg, from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London said: “The severity of symptoms we identified are highly likely to impair some ICU staff’s ability to provide high quality care as well as negatively impacting on their quality of life.”


Now is the time to look hard at the working conditions for NHS staff; to listen and take action on the concerns raised by these surveys. At a time when many staff are feeling ‘burnt out’, stressed and traumatised by their experiences, addressing the health and wellbeing of healthcare workers has never been so important.


Louise Frampton l Editor louiseframpton@stepcomms.com


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Staff survey: stress and discrimination concerns


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