The Department of Health has recently surveyed 101,000 doctors, nurses and paramedics of which, 37% of them revealed they would not recommend their own hospital to friends or family.
The study found that there were only eight Trusts where 90% or more of the staff would recommend treatment. These included international centres of excellence including Great Ormond Street Hospital For Children and Moorfields Eye Hospital. However, only 35% of staff would recommend treatment at North Cumbria University Hospitals Trust.
The figures also revealed that that 62% of staff felt that the care of patients and service users was their organisation’s top priority, up from 57% in the 2011 survey.
The results confirmed that a third of NHS staff had witnessed medical blunders or near misses at least once in the last month. Eighty-six percent of all staff felt encouraged by their organisation to report such incidents but only 14% felt that reporting the errors would lead to punishment or blaming of those involved.
In addition to the above, the study also asked NHS staff about the management of their organisation. Just over one third of staff felt there was effective communication and only 28% believed they were involved by their managers in important decisions. It also revealed that worryingly, only 40% of NHS staff was satisfied with the extent to which they felt that their Trust valued their work however, this figure was the lowest for ambulance staff at only 23%.
The study results will be used by the NHS organisations to help them review and improve staff experience so that they can provide better patient care. The Care Quality Commission will also use the figures from the survey to monitor ongoing compliance with essential standards of quality and safety.
By Sarah Fairclough
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