A quarter of staff at two Norfolk hospitals plan to look for new jobs elsewhere, according to a major study showing the dire state of morale among healthcare workers.
The statistic, which is three points higher than the national average, was one among several revealed in the results of the annual NHS staff survey, which is one of the largest workforce polls in the world.
Some 25pc of staff at both the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) and King’s Lynn’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) say they will “probably look for a job at a new organisation in the next year - compared with a national average of 22pc.
At Gorleston’s James Paget University Hospital (JPUH), the figure was 18pc.
Among the county’s three hospitals, the NNUH performed the least well on a range of questions.
Only 19pc of NNUH staff said there were “enough staff for me to do my job properly, compared with 22pc at the QEH and a national average of 26pc. The figure at the JPUH was 27pc.
Among registered nurses and midwives at the NNUH, the figure was as low as 12.5pc.
Teresa Budrey, eastern regional director at the Royal College of Nursing, said the figures were “very worrying”.
“The government needs to heed these results and take urgent action to recruit and retain nursing staff across our region,” she said.
“When there are not enough staff it can mean patients don’t receive the care they need or their safety is compromised. It can also lead to delays in patients receiving treatment, which is already a concern due to backlogs caused by the Covid crisis.”
An NNUH staff member, who asked to remain anonymous, said that in addition to “severe staffing shortages”, the hospital was suffering from “dangerous overcrowding” which was “demoralising staff”.
They also alleged there was a lack of visibility among the hospital’s leadership.
“The senior teams making decisions regarding the organisation are seldom seen in clinical environments,” they said.
“Furthermore, frontline staff are never included in discussions about how care should be provided.”
NNUH chief executive Sam Higginson responded: “This year’s staff survey results reflect a difficult period for our organisation and what staff have been telling us around work pressures and the impact that has had on morale and wellbeing.
“We are developing a three-year improvement plan and already have several large-scale recruitment campaigns under way to help ensure we have the staff numbers we need, which includes the 96 international nurses who are due to join us by the end of May.
“We are working with other organisations across Norfolk and Waveney to recruit 800 healthcare assistants, with our trust taking the largest cohort.
“We are also investing in staff facilities and new technology and electronic systems are being adopted to make a difference for our staff.”
On other measures, the QEH performed least well. Just 48pc of QEH staff said they were happy with the hospital’s standard of care, compared with 60pc at the NNUH and a national average of 67pc. The JPUH’s figure was 72pc.
The QEH’s director of people Jo Humphries said: “This is a disappointing result for our Trust and we will continue to work closely with our staff to make further improvements to their work experiences as we continue to develop.”
“Since the survey data was collected, we have introduced further measures to support our staff and make our trust a place people can feel proud to work.”
JPUH chief executive Anna Hills said the hospital’s relative positive scores were “encouraging” but said the responses nonetheless “reflect the experience of the unprecedented challenge of the pandemic”.
How did the region's ambulance service perform?
The East of England Ambulance Service performed the worst out of England and Wales' 11 ambulance trusts on a range of questions relating to morale and working conditions.
Over two thirds of staff reported going into work despite not feeling well enough to do their jobs.
Some 64pc also reported feeling “unwell as a result of work-related stress” in the previous year.
Tom Abell, the service trust’s chief executive, said: “While the NHS staff survey acknowledges the improvements we have made in key areas – the results also show that we still have deep-rooted, long-standing issues that need to be addressed.
“This improvement will take time, but we have made significant progress in tackling outstanding employment relations cases, encouraging people to speak up, recruiting additional staff and managing pressures on the service.
“Our focus now is on building on this progress and further strengthening health and well-being support for our people. We are also investing in an expanded team to drive recruitment, resolve staff issues quickly and tackle inequalities in our culture.”
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