Pictured: Staff on the Critical Care Unit at Royal Blackburn were among the first to hear the good NHS Staff Survey news
The 2019 NHS Staff Survey, completed by a record 46.9 per cent of employees, shows staff at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) rate the organisation higher than ever in comparison to working environments at England’s other acute hospital and community trusts.
The latest results see East Lancashire Hospitals score higher than the national average for 9 of the survey’s 11 key themes, including health & wellbeing, quality of care, morale, quality of appraisals, safety culture, staff engagement and team working.
East Lancashire Hospital’s 3,942 survey responses is a record high with staff rating the Trust significantly above average for 93 of the survey’s 104 questions, and not significantly worse in any area.
Kevin McGee, ELHT Chief Executive said: “The 2019 NHS Staff Survey results show yet again that East Lancashire Hospitals is an ever improving place to work and we’re now as good as any NHS employer in England.”
“In particular, there is clear evidence that East Lancashire Hospitals is among the best places to work in the NHS for staff morale, team working, safety culture and staff health and wellbeing.
“We have fantastic staff who I know go the extra mile for patients and their colleagues. We really do value their opinion and do all we can to support them. Part of that is listening and, most importantly, acting on what they have to say in the NHS Staff Survey.”
Areas in which East Lancashire Hospitals achieved significant improvements in their NHS Staff Survey results include career progression, positive action on staff health/wellbeing and better work relationships.
Crucially, 85 per cent of staff are satisfied with the quality of care they provide patients and 94 per cent use patient / service user experience feedback to improve their ward/service.
Staff at Royal Blackburn and Burnley General teaching hospitals, Accrington Victoria, Clitheroe and Pendle community hospitals as well as community nursing teams, took part in the national 2019 NHS Staff Survey.
ELHT staff also rate the trust above average for flexible working opportunities, not experiencing work related stress, support for training needs and tackling unrealistic time pressures.
East Lancashire Hospitals is also one of the best in the England for senior managers acting on staff feedback (42.8 per cent) and the low number of staff thinking of leaving the Trust (20.7 per cent).
Staff also rate ELHT highly in survey questions related to the Workforce Racial Equality Standard and Workforce Disability Equality Standard, with fewer staff experiencing discrimination based on ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion and disability than other NHS trusts.
Given the considerable and sustained pressures that many NHS staff are under, in common with other Trusts East Lancashire has areas for improvement. Concerns were raised in the survey about the number of staff experiencing discrimination at work from patients / service users (5.2 per cent) and personal experiences of physical violence at work from other colleagues (1.6 per cent).
Lee Barnes, ELHT Head of Staff Wellbeing and Engagement, said: “The annual NHS Staff Survey is an important way for staff to tell us what they think, so we can understand what we are doing well and where we could be doing better.
“This year’s results demonstrate some excellent achievements and these results are reflective of our hard-working staff. Overall the survey results are very good, but we will develop actions plans to address any issues highlighted in the survey.”
The complete 2019 NHS Staff Survey results can be found on the NHS staff survey site at https://www.nhsstaffsurveys.com/Page/1056/Home/NHS-Staff-Survey-2019/