More needs to be done to place the health and well-being of NHS staff, alongside quality, at the heart of how the health service operates, according to the latest findings of an independent review.
Improving the health and well-being of 1.4 million NHS staff could potentially save over half a billion pounds a year and improve patient care, according to an interim report from the NHS Health and Well-being Review. Dr Steve Boorman – who was asked by the DH to lead the review – calls for an overhaul in the priority and focus placed on staff health, particularly given the aspirations laid out in the NHS Constitution, to help the NHS meet the challenges it faces over coming years. Dr Boorman said: “NHS staff work incredibly hard often in difficult circumstances to ensure high quality healthcare is available to all at the point of need – and we can do more to support staff health and well-being. “By putting staff health and well-being at the heart of how the NHS operates, we will not only help improve the working lives of 1.4 m people, but evidence suggests we will make significant savings and improve outcomes for patients.” The NHS currently loses 10.3 m working days annually due to sickness absence alone, costing £1.7 bn per year. A reduction of a third would mean an extra 3.4 m working days a year, and annual direct cost savings of over half a billion pounds (£555 m). There is significant evidence to suggest that Trust performance overall is linked to higher levels of staff health and well-being. Staff illhealth is shown to be a serious barrier to the provision of consistently high quality patient care, with over 80% of the 11,000 NHS staff who took part in the review’s staff perception survey saying that their state of health affects the quality of the patient care they deliver. Commenting on the report, Royal College of Nursing chief executive, Dr Peter Carter, said: “NHS staff work in a culture of ‘presenteeism’ where they feel obliged to come to work when they are unwell. The review also shows that too many staff suffer from back problems and preventable stress. The RCN has been saying for some time that staff health and well-being must be central to the way NHS organisations operate and we are calling for the recommendations to be acted on quickly – nurses and other healthcare workers must be given an assurance that the final report will have the teeth to make a difference.” The organisation, NHS Employers, welcomed the report’s findings and pointed out that many Trusts are already working to improve the health and well-being of their staff. For example, at the Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust employment of a part-time physiotherapist resulted in a 39% drop in sickness absence among nursing and midwifery staff, equating to 195 working days saved over six months. UNISON, the UK’s largest health union, condemned media reporting of the interim Boorman review. Karen Jennings, UNISON head of health, said: “The Boorman report should not be used as a stick to beat hard-working NHS staff. You must look at the underlying causes for absence. Almost 56,000 NHS workers were physically assaulted, in England alone, last year – that will obviously have led to staff needing time off. Working in the NHS is physically and mentally demanding and back injuries, needlestick injuries and cross-infections all take a toll on workers’ health.”
