Pressure on 999 crews
ALMOST half of North West ambulance staff reported feeling sick with stress last year – one of the worst figures in the entire NHS.
The latest NHS Staff Survey reveals once again the strain ambulance staff in Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire feel they are under.
Around 48% of staff who filled in the 2016 survey from North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust said they had felt ill due to work-related stress during the last year.
Only six NHS trusts – including ambulance, mental health, acute and community trusts – out of more than 200 in total had a worse score than that. Almost twothirds of staff at the trust said they had showed up ● to work despite feeling unwell in the past three months because they felt under pressure to be there, either from themselves, their managers or colleagues.
Almost all the staff there were working overtime in 2016, the questionnaire results suggest. Around 85% of workers who filled in the survey said they were working extra hours.
North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust got one of the lowest overall ‘engagement scores’ of any trust of 3.47 out of five.
This was an average of their answers to various ‘agree or disagree’ questions such as ‘I look forward to going to work’, where five is the best score.
The trust is also responsible for ambulance services in Lancashire and Cumbria. A total of 36% of staff at the trust filled in the survey. All contracted staff at the trust were eligible to be asked to fill in the survey – not just paramedics and other front-line workers. The data is unweighted, which means it’s not adjusted for any differences in the overall staff profile of the trust.