Crisis on NHS frontline exposed

NEARLY a third of NHS staff have witnessed potentially harmful errors or near misses at work, a poll reveals.

Doctors, nurses and consultants have exposed a crisis on the frontline, telling of mass dissatisfaction within the health service.

The state of the NHS in England is laid bare in the 2017 staff survey – the largest workforce poll in the world – which found just 67 per cent agree or strongly agree they are able to deliver the care they want.

The poll of 1.1 million employees drew a response from 485,000 staff – 80 per cent of whom said they were satisfied with the quality of care they give to patients, a drop on last year.

Just 31 per cent agreed there are enough staff to enable them to do their job properly – the same number who said they were satisfied with their pay. Stressed staff also reported higher rates of feeling unwell because of work-related pressure, while more than half of NHS staff are working unpaid overtime every week.

Alarmingly, 29 per cent witnessed potentially harmful errors, near misses or incidents within the previous month and nine in ten reported them. Violence against NHS staff has also reached a five-year high.

Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, which represents rank-and-file staff, said: “The country needs to take these challenging results seriously.

“We cannot expect staff to absorb additional work pressures year on year without it having an adverse effect on their experience of work.”

Candace Imison, of the Nuffield Trust, said: “It is disturbing that some of the more worrying findings from the staff survey have failed to improve over the last five years. This includes around 30 per cent of staff witnessing potentially harmful errors and nearly four out of ten feeling unwell due to work-related stress.

“The NHS is under pressure – this can harm staff and their patients.”

However, the survey found that 75 per cent of staff are enthusiastic about their job. And 70 per cent said that, if a friend or relative needed treatment, they would be happy with the standard of care provided by their organisation.

Neil Churchill, director for patient experience at NHS England, said: “Staff are going above and beyond to deliver the best care under pressure.”