But 58 per cent of employees ‘would recommend working at NHS’
Only 36 per cent of NHS staff said that communication between senior managers and staff is effective, according to the annual NHS England employee survey.
The survey, which received 203,000 staff responses, also found that less than a third of all NHS staff (28 per cent) said senior managers act on feedback from staff.
These findings suggest the health service has more work to do around listening and staff engagement, as failures in communications were a contributing factor in the Mid Staffs scandal and other high profile health care failures.
However, 74 per cent of respondents also said they did have the opportunity to raise suggestions with their managers about how the work of their team or department could be improved.
And the percentage of staff who said they would recommend their organisation as a place to work increased from 55 per cent in 2012 to 58 per cent in 2013. But only 41 per cent of all staff said they were satisfied with the extent to which their trust valued their work. This figure is lowest among ambulance staff at 21 per cent and highest among Clinical Commissioning Groups (65 per cent).
Most positively, the vast majority of NHS workers (90 per cent) said their role makes a difference to patients, and almost two thirds of staff (65 per cent) would recommend their organisation to friends and family as a place to go for treatment.
Sue Covill, director of Employment Services for the NHS Employers organisation, said: "Employers know that building staff engagement and pride in the organisation helps deliver high-quality, compassionate care. Staff feeling valued and being valued is absolutely vital to the effective delivery of patient care and we believe it is an important factor behind many of the positive results.
"It is telling that after all the negativity of the NHS during the past year, over 90 per cent of staff said their role makes a difference to patients, with almost seven out of ten able to make a positive difference to service improvements.”
Covill said NHS Employers was pleased that employers have worked hard to create a climate where staff feel able to raise concerns. “It's been over a year since the second Francis report was published, so it is encouraging that staff have confidence in reporting their concerns and know how to do so.”
However, she also recognsied the “tough issues” that remain and which were highlighted by the survey and said employers would be working with staff to review their local survey results and to focus on improvements.