Only 67.8% of NHS staff are happy with standard of care
ONE in 10 NHS staff would not feel happy if a friend or relative needed to be treated at their organisation, according to a major new poll.
Workplace stress, rising rates of discrimination against staff and concerns that patients are not being listened too were all raised during the annual survey of health service workers across England.
Some 67.8 per cent of health service workers said that if a friend or relative needed treatment, they would be happy with the standard of care provided by their organisation. This is down from almost three quarters (74.2 per cent) in 2020, according to the 2021 report, which included responses from almost 650,000 NHS staff.
One in 10 (10.4 per cent) disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement.
The poll also revealed that fewer staff look forward to going to work, enthusiasm has dipped and satisfaction over pay has fallen.
Other findings include:
» Some 27.2 per cent of staff said there are enough staff at their organisation for them to do their job properly – a decline of more than 11 percentage points since 2020.
» Just 72 per cent said their organisation acts on concerns raised by patients, down from 75 per cent in 2020, and fewer staff said that care of patients is their organisation’s “top priority” – 75.6 per cent in 2021 compared with 79.5 per cent in 2020.
» Less than a third (32.7 per cent) of health service workers said they are satisfied with their level of pay.
» Some 46.8 per cent of NHS staff in England have felt unwell as a result of work-related stress in the last 12 months.
» The poll found that just over half (52.5 per cent) look forward to going to work – a decline of six percentage points from 2020.
» Some 23 per cent said that they will probably look for a job at a new organisation in the next 12 months, with 16.6% saying that they intend to leave as soon as possible.
» Only 59.4 per cent would recommend their organisation as a place to work and only 67 per cent said they were enthusiastic about their job – down from 75 per cent in 2019.
It comes as a separate poll found the public’s satisfaction with the NHS has fallen to the lowest level in quarter of a century. Just 36 per cent of people said they were satisfied with the service in 2021, the lowest since 1997, according to the 2021 British Social Attitudes survey.