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Poor management is a key health issue, say NHS staff

NHS staff are at least as concerned about their psychological well-being as their physical health at work, a survey of 15,000 NHS staff has revealed – although only moderate to low levels of stress were reported by most staff groups.

The survey, carried out as a part of the Health Education Authority’s ‘health at work in the NHS’ initiative, found that staff felt their health would benefit more from improved communication and amanagement at work than from a traditional focus on changing their lifestyle.

And more than a quarter of respondents felt that training supervisors or managers to be more sensitive to employees’ concerns should be an important health promotion priority.

Employees of 14 NHS trusts were included in the survey, which also examined the morale of employees. Although most respondents reported a moderate level of commitment to their trust, satisfaction with the degree of openness in the trust was low. Maintenance, works and ancillary staff were particularly worried about the possibility of redundancy.

In terms of individual ‘risk factors’ for ill health, there were some areas of particular concern. Over one in nine of current smokers said they ‘did not know’ if smoking affected their health, and half of the heavy smokers claimed that their habit had little or no effect on their health.

Almost a half of all respondents had been absent from work in the previous six months, and almost one in five blamed some absences on injury or ill health caused by conditions in their trust.