East Lancashire hospital staff rate Trust highly

Staff at Royal Blackburn and Burnley General teaching hospitals, Accrington Victoria, Clitheroe and Pendle community hospitals as well as community teams, took part in the national 2018 NHS Staff Survey.

Based on responses from 45% of all Trust employees – up from 43 per cent in 2017 - staff rate East Lancashire Hospitals significantly above the national average for 79 of the survey’s 90 questions, and not significantly worse in any area.

Some 70% of staff say they would recommend the Trust as a place to work, while 76% will happily recommend the Trust’s five hospitals and 17 community health facilities to people requiring care or treatment.

In comparison to other NHS trusts, ELHT scored favourably in treating staff involved in incidents or errors fairly, reducing the number of staff who come to work despite not feeling well enough to perform duties, satisfaction with levels of pay, and taking action to make sure mistakes do not happen again.

Crucially, 83% of staff believe that care of patients is the Trust’s top priority, a significantly higher score than other Trusts and 12% above the scores when staff were asked the same question back in 2014.

However, staff also raised concerns in some areas.

Issues to tackle include the number of staff who put themselves under pressure to come to work when not feeling well (7%), staff wanting more opportunities for flexible working (45%) and increased levels of training and development (30%).

Lee Barnes, ELHT head of Staff Wellbeing and Engagement, said: “We want to underline how important it is to hear staff views and concerns. We need their help to continually improve the services and support we offer, both for patients and our own workforce.

“The majority of our staff are happy and confident, but over the next few months we’ll be taking a closer look at what more needs to be done so we continue to provide a work environment that all our employees deserve.”

Kevin McGee, ELHT chief executive, said: “Staff are going above and beyond to deliver the best care under pressure and these results show that staff appreciate the efforts of the Trust to listen, support and act on their concerns.

“In recent years, we have achieved consistent progress in improving our workplaces as we listen to what staff say, hear it and act on it. And that’s what we’ll continue to do.

“Improved staff satisfaction is also good news for our patients as there is a strong link between high levels of staff satisfaction and better services and outcomes for patients.”