Staff survey gives trust 'vote of no confidence'

ONCE AGAIN, the standard of patient care at the Royal Blackburn Hospital is under question.

 NHS STAFF working at the Royal Blackburn Hospital have finally been allowed to voice their opinion 'anonomously' about patient safety and working conditions.

Less than half of staff working at the Hospital trust in Blackburn said they would be happy to have a friend or relative treated at the hospital where they worked, amounting to a massive vote of no confidence.

Since the transfer of A&E services from Burnley to Blackburn in 2007, many staff have commented that they are under enourmous pressure to cope with the additional workload. Prior to the survey, some staff have said they simply cannot provide the quality of care they would like due to over-capacity and understaffing at the Royal Blackburn site. This was again highlighted in the staff survey.

The survey consisted of 155 questions about the perceptions staff had of their workplace.

STAFF SURVEY - THE RESULTS

Below are results from the 2009/2010 staff survey..

• only 48% of staff would be happy to have a friend or relative treated at their hospital
  
  

• when staff made complaints, not enough was done in response to the complaints
  
  

• a third of staff were dissatisfied with patient care provided at their hospital and felt that their work was undervalued
  
  

•  Many staff say they feel excluded from decision-making processes and that senior managers do not act on their feedback
  
  

• two-thirds said there was not enough staff for them to be able to do their job properly
  
  
• Only just over half of staff said they would recommend the trust as a place to work.

Liberal Democrat, and Burnley Council leader Gordon Birtwistle said: “This survey is terrible from the hospitals’ point of view as it is a shocking thing that less than half of the staff would want their own relatives or friends treated at the hospitals.

“What does that say about the standards of care?

“It shows that the hospital is overwhelmed and they cannot cope with the level of patients.”

The report highlighted that staff recommendation of the trust as a place to work or receive treatment was in the lowest 20 per cent in the country.

It also showed that staff intending to leave their job was above average compared to other trusts.

The survey is now to be forwarded to the Care Quality Commission (formerly the Healthcare Commission)

Read the Lancashire Telegraph report here...

Note to Editors:

In 2007 the Department of Health, in conjunction with Ipsos MORI, conducted a piece of research, referred to as ‘What Matters to Staff in the NHS' , which tried to identify the major factors contributing to staff engagement and motivation to provide high quality patient care. These themes informed the Next Stage Review and the staff pledges in the NHS Constitution , which have brought a renewed focus on the NHS as an employer. The latter includes four pledges to staff that set out, for the first time, what the NHS expects from its staff and what staff can expect from the NHS as an employer