NHS staff ‘feel pressured to go to work while ill’
ONE IN 10 STRESSED WORKERS ‘HAVE BEEN ASSAULTED’
Political Editor HOSPITAL consultants and nurses are turning up for work even though they are ill themselves - because they feel under so much pressure to keep services running.
A new survey of NHS staff found many are stressed through overwork and staff shortages, and at risk of attack from the patients they are trying to help.
But it did find an overwhelming majority believe they are able to deliver the high standard of care they aspire to.
The 2017 NHS staff survey found that one in three (33%) NHS staff at the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust reported feeling unwell due to work-related stress in the past 12 months.
And almost half (49%) said they had come to work in the last three months despite feeling unwell, “because they felt pressure from their manager, colleagues or themselves”.
The survey found 12% of staff, more than one in 10, had experienced physical violence from patients, relatives or the public in last 12 months.
The trust manages the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Freeman Hospital, Great North Children’s Hospital and other services.
The Newcastle trust was not unusual. At Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and other services in Gateshead, 49% of staff also reported coming in to work when they were unwell.
At City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Sunderland Royal Hospital, the figure was 50%.
However the poll - conducted on behalf of NHS England - found three quarters of NHS staff nationwide are enthusiastic about their job and seven in 10 said that if a friend or relative needed treatment, they would be happy with the standard of care provided by their organisation.
Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, which represents employers in the health service, 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.
“It’s disappointing but understandable that staff are less satisfied with the standard of care they are able to provide and that they are feeling more stressed.
“I am however encouraged that staff continue to be willing to recommend the NHS as a place to be cared for.”
Janet Davies, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “These figures bear out the warnings from nurses on the NHS frontline - patient care standards are heading in the wrong direction and nursing staff will not accept it.
“But it also reveals the sharpest of all rises in dissatisfaction with pay, now standing at 45% of the workforce - up by more than 7% in a single year.
“It is a timely reminder for the Chancellor that years of unfair pay deals have taken their toll and a meaningful rise is long overdue.
“More than half of NHS staff report working unpaid overtime every single week.
“Ministers must stop treating the goodwill and dedication of NHS staff as a replacement for adequate funding and proper workforce planning.
“Continuing down this path is unfair, and untenable.”