NHS Staff Survey results for 2012 showed a significant rise in reported bullying of staff. The report found that 29% of all staff report having been harassed, bullied or abused by patients in the previous 12 months, with over 23% reporting harassment, bullying, or abuse from NHS managers, team leaders or other colleagues.
The comparative figures for 2011 are 13% and 14% respectively. In acute settings, 24% of doctors report being harassed, bullied or abused by NHS managers, team leaders or other staff in the past year, compared with 13% in 2011. The survey also found a rise in the confidence of the quality of care staff are delivering. The reported quality of work and patient care all staff are able to deliver has shown a slight increase – from 74.7% in 2011 to 78.1% in 2012 – despite the continued financial pressures being felt across the health service. Commenting on the report findings, Professor Norman Williams, president of the Royal College of Surgeons said: “Aggressive management has no place in the NHS. Hospitals need to foster a culture that encourages staff to be open with one another, and where clinical care is always the top priority. Clinicians and managers working together must create a more open NHS where anyone feels able to speak out when there is unacceptable behaviour, so that bullying, harassment and abuse are stamped out, once and for all.” Other key points highlighted by the report include:
• 63% of NHS staff said that if a friend or relative needed treatment they would be happy with the standard of care provided by their organisation. This figure is unchanged from that in the 2011 survey. In addition, 62% said that care of patients and service users is their organisation’s top priority.
• There continues to be an improvement in the proportion of staff receiving appraisals, up from 80% in the 2011 survey to 83% in 2012. However, only 36% of staff said these appraisals were well structured.
• Only 40% of all staff were satisfied with the extent to which they felt that their Trust values their work, this figure is lowest for ambulance staff (23%) and highest among social enterprise staff (47%). However, the proportion of staff who indicated that they would recommend their organisation as a place to work has increased for the first time in three years (55% in 2012 compared to 51% in 2011, 53% in 2010 and 55% in 2009).
• Only 35% said that communication between senior managers and staff is effective, this figure is the lowest for ambulance staff (20%), and less than a third of all NHS staff (26%) reported that senior managers act on feedback from staff. Despite this 74% said that they are able to make suggestions on how they could improve the work of their team or department.
