Trust leads the way in looking after its staff
The results of the latest national NHS staff survey (published 9 March 2023) show that Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust (BHT) is one of the top trusts in the country for how well it supports colleagues with their health and wellbeing.
Over 3,500 staff took part in the survey with the score for ‘my organisation takes positive action on health and wellbeing” increasing from 67.5% to 71.1% compared to a national average of 55.6%.
The overall score for staff engagement increased from 6.9 to 7.0 which is close to the best in class national score of 7.3. In fact, BHT scored above average in all 9 of the themes covered by the staff survey, which are aligned to the NHS People Promise, with 8 areas significantly better than comparable trusts.
What is disappointing, however, is the increase in colleagues who have personally experienced discrimination, physical violence or verbal abuse from patients, their families or members of the public, up from 25% to almost 30%. The Trust recently launched a ‘No Excuse for Abuse’ campaign to ensure that the public know that we will not tolerate physical or verbal abuse and we are trialling a number of initiatives, such as the wearing of bodycams in our Emergency Department, to ensure that our colleagues can work without fear for their own safety.
Commenting on the results Bridget O’Kelly, Chief People Officer for Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, said, “I am particularly proud of the extensive wellbeing support we provide for colleagues – looking after both their physical and psychological health. If we don’t look after our own people well then they won’t be able to deliver the outstanding care we aspire to provide to all our patients and service users – both in our hospitals and to people in their own homes.
“However, we also recognise that as a Trust we still have a long way to go in some areas as, whilst we may be better than comparable trusts, it’s still not where we want to be. In particular, we are concerned that the experience reported by colleagues who are Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds or who have a long-term health condition or disability, is worse than our white colleagues or those without a long-term health condition and addressing this remains a key priority for us.
“Overall, the results of the staff survey show us that that despite another year of significant change and unprecedented operational pressures, that we are moving in the right direction with colleagues telling us that they are passionate about the job they do, feel that they can make a positive difference to improving the work of their team and that the care of patients is the Trust’s number one priority.”
