LESS than half of staff who completed a survey about what it is like to work at Hampshire Hospitals said they would feel confident that the trust would address their concerns. 

The results of the NHS Staff Survey Benchmark Report 2023 show that while 64 per cent of staff at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT) would feel secure raising concerns about unsafe clinical practice, only 49 per cent felt confident that the trust would address their concern.

This was below the average result of 55.9 per cent. It has fallen for the last three years from 60 per cent in 2020, 57 per cent in 2021 and 55 per cent in 2022.

The results of the report show the 2023 survey results along with historical results back to 2019, where possible. These are then presented in the context of best, average and worst for similar organisations where appropriate. Some data is weighted to allow for fair comparisons between organisations.

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The results for the People Promise section show that HHFT was below average in every category, including morale, staff engagement, being safe and healthy, flexible working and being compassionate and inclusive.

In presenting the results to staff, HHFT said it improved or matched its 2022 score in eight out of nine categories.

Staff said they did not feel confident that the trust would address their concern if they spoke up about something, with just 43 per cent responding positively to this question.

The survey showed that 29 per cent of respondents working at HHFT do not feel there are enough staff to do their job properly.

More than 35 per cent of respondents said in the last month they have seen errors, near misses or incidents that could have hurt staff and / or patients, which was slightly worse than the average of 34.9 per cent.

While 85.5 per cent of respondents said HHFT encourages them to report errors, near misses or incidents, 64.5 per cent said the trust takes action to ensure they do not happen again. This was below the average of 68.3 per cent.

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Almost 30 per cent of respondents said they are exhausted at the thought of another day/shift at work, with 41.9 per cent saying they have felt unwell during the last 12 months as a result of work-related stress. However, this was a decrease from the previous three years’ results, which were 45.2 per cent in 2022; 46.2 per cent in 2021 and 44.6 per cent in 2020.

The survey showed that hundreds of staff at HHFT had personally experienced physical violence at work from patients, service users, their relatives or other members of the public in the last 12 months.

Almost 13 per cent of the 3,193 people who responded to this question said they had experienced physical violence at work, which equates to more than 400 members of staff.

More than 50 respondents said they had experienced physical violence from a colleague.

Just over 57 per cent of respondents said they would recommended their organisation as a place to work, which was an increase from 2022's 56.8 per cent, but below the average of 60.5 per cent.

However, staff responded positively when asked about the people they work with. Of the 3,380 respondents to this question, 69.8 per cent said the people they work with are understanding and kind to one another, which was slightly above the average of 69.7 per cent.

Seventy one per cent of respondents also said the people they work with are polite and treat each other with respect.

When it came to staff morale, more than 1,000 (30.9 per cent) of those who responded said they often think about leaving HHFT.

More than half of respondents (56.2 per cent) said they work additional unpaid hours every week over and above their contracted hours.

There was an increase in the percentage of respondents who said they have experienced discrimination based on their ethnic background, with 62.4 per cent of the 484 people who responded to this question saying they have experienced discrimination.

This has risen from 58.6 per cent in 2022, 47.5 per cent in 2021, 44.8 per cent in 2020 and 45.2 per cent in 2019.

Of those who responded to the survey, the majority – 76.4 per cent – were female working as a registered nurse or midwife (31.2 per cent).

The report encourages HHFT to identify areas of concern and look for questions where it falls between the benchmark group average and the worst result, particularly questions where its result is very close to the worst result.

The trust said work is now underway in teams to understand the specifics for each team and to help its mission to ‘make Hampshire hospitals a great place to work for all our people’.

HHFT has been asked for a comment.