Only 41 per cent of Shropshire hospital workers surveyed recommend trust as place to work

The Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) staff survey results for 2021/22 show 80 per cent of questions answered scored significantly worse than other similar hospital trusts.

The results also show that the scores for answers to 51 per cent of questions had significantly declined since the last survey.

One of the most damning responses shows only 41 per cent of workers answering the survey would recommend the trust as a place to work – nearly 20 per cent below the average for similar trusts.

Another area of concern is only 44 per cent of those responding saying they would be happy with the standard of care provided if a family member needed treatment, compared to 68 per cent at other hospital trusts.

The figures also show that only 34 per cent of respondents were confident that action would be taken if they spoke up over concerns.

Louise Barnett, the chief executive of SaTH, said the organisation is committed to addressing the findings, which put it in the bottom quartile of trusts across the country.

She said: "We have fantastic colleagues working within our organisation and we are committed to ensuring our trust is a great place to work and receive care. We recognise that our staff survey results last year were not where we wanted them to be.

"We have got a significant amount of work still to do and we will continue working with our teams to achieve this.”

Dawn Thompson, the trust's assistant director of people, leadership and organisational development, also addressed the issue at the organisation's board meeting this afternoon.

She said: "The staff survey is arguably one of the most important things we can do for both our staff and patients."

Ms Thompson said that the results had been scored against nine NHS 'people promise' themes – and the outcome had not been favourable for the trust.

She added: "We can see from the report that we scored below the average on all of those nine themes from the People Promise. And, to note we were bottom in four of those items, which were engagement, morale, a voice that counts, and compassion and inclusion.

"This was compared to other acute trusts which means we are in the bottom quartile.

"However it is important to note that in the last nine months we have developed a cultural dashboard and we will us this as a measure for our staff survey against the cultural themes. To support this we have started a steering group that will drive the actions forward and monitor our progress through staff surveys."

Ms Thompson said that ahead of the start of the 2022/23 staff survey they would also be running eight weeks of communications with staff around the importance of taking part – and to bust myths over staff concerns.

Asked what kind of myths were a concern she said: "The information we get from our unions and some of our staff is they do not actually feel is it's in confidence.

"They feel because it has a bar code anything they come forward with they can be identified."