SOME NHS staff in east London have experienced physical violence from patients and struggle with burn-out, according to a staff survey.
Workers were asked about their experiences in hospitals and mental health services by the Barking, Havering and Redbridge University NHS Trust (BHRUT), which oversees healthcare in the three boroughs – including Queen’s Hospital in Romford and King George in Ilford.
The anonymous questionnaire was answered by more than 4,000 employees, equating to around 47% of the trust’s workforce.
It revealed that 36.4% of respondents felt “burnt out” because of their work. A further 16.8% reported experiencing physical violence from patients or the public in the past year, while 29.6% said they had faced harassment, bullying or abuse.
BHRUT chief executive Matthew Trainer, who is set to leave the trust in the coming months, said: “We will be working together with colleagues across our clinical groups to address the issues and identify ways to improve staff experiences both trust-wide and within individual teams.
“Over the past year we have strengthened support for managers through our
management essentials programme, refreshed key people policies, and introduced a pre-investigation panel to ensure concerns are handled consistently and fairly.”
The trust will also launch in-house mediation service in the coming months to help resolve issues earlier, he added.
The survey came at an “exceptionally busy time” for the trust with “record numbers” of patients attending A&E. Many responses were positive, however.
Staff said they were “proud of the care we provide and value the support of their teams and line managers,” the chief executive said. He pointed to 88.4% saying they felt their role “makes a difference to patients”.
This week, the trust was hit by a second wave of strikes in the pathology and clinical engineering departments.
Pathology workers, registered with union Unite, walked out over a new shift system which they say will see their earnings reduced, as well as the NHS’ alleged failure to tackle accusations of bullying, harassment, and discrimination within the department.
Clinical engineering staff took industrial action over outsourcing and the proposed transfer of roles to Siemens Healthineers.
Trainer said last week: “We need to make changes to the shifts our staff work in pathology because we are one of the few trusts that don’t have a 24/7 service.
“We recognise the impact this will have on colleagues who will be affected by this change and we’re willing to offer a level of pay protection that is higher than elsewhere in the NHS.
“We’re keen to continue negotiating and we need Unite to agree to provide safe cover.”
