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Thursday, 18 April 2024

Tuesday, 22 March 2005 17:07

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National NHS staff survey

The Healthcare Commission publishes its second national NHS staff survey. It is the largest workforce survey in the world with over 217,000 NHS staff from 572 organizations in England taking part.

The Healthcare Commission found a quarter of medical staff were abused or harassed by patients in the last year, with 14% being physically attacked.

Healthcare Commission Chief Executive Anna Walker said:

"It is clear from this survey that NHS staff remain committed to providing good patient care and helping their colleagues. Staffs are generally satisfied with their work, and there are welcomed increases in the number of staff receiving training and appraisals. However, it is worrying that little has changed with regards to the harassment and violence towards NHS staff. A staggering 15 percent of staff said they had been physically attacked at work in the past 12 months. The fact that over a third of staff say they suffer from work related stress is a major concern, which trusts must tackle".

Karen Jennings, head of health at public sector union Unison, said more action was needed to reduce the attacks against staff.

"Although there are no dramatic changes from last year's survey, it's very disturbing to see that the levels of violence and harassment.

"We fully support zero tolerance in NHS trusts, but we would like to see violent offenders prosecuted and facing tougher penalties in the courts.”We need to make it clear that violence against health workers will not be tolerated and offenders will have the book thrown at them”.

Health Secretary John Reid admitted improvements were needed, but he also said the positive results should be recognised.