Last updated at 16:45, Monday, 11 March 2013

THE organisation responsible for running Furness General Hospital ranks in the worst 20 per cent of England’s hospital trusts when it comes to staff engagement, according to the 2012 National NHS staff survey.

The five areas in which the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust compared least well with other trusts were staff motivation, effective team working and the percentage of staff agreeing their role made a difference to patients, feeling satisfied with the quality of work and patient care they were able to deliver and reporting good communication with senior management.

The five areas it compared best were the percentage of staff receiving appraisals and reporting errors, near misses or incidents, plus the low percentage of staff experiencing discrimination at work, witnessing potentially harmful errors, near misses or incidents and experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from the public.

UHMBT chief executive, Jackie Daniel, said: “Overall, there is a mixed picture for the organisation.

“The trust has been through a difficult time and this survey gives us pointers for the future that we can use to improve the situation for our staff.

“We have worked extremely hard to improve our staff engagement and we now know where we need to focus the further work.”

In the 28 key areas covered by the survey, UHMBT was found to be in the worst 20 per cent of trusts in 12 categories, worse than average in eight and average in three.

It was better than average in three and in the top 20 per cent in two.

Against its own results from last year, it showed no change in 13 areas and performed worse in seven areas.

There were no areas of improvement.

UHMBT chairman, John Cowdall, said: “In any survey of this kind, one of the benefits is that it can show us where we need to continue our efforts to improve the working lives of staff.

“We know that there is work to do and it is thanks to those who have taken part in the survey for indicating where this work needs to be targeted.”

First published at 16:02, Monday, 11 March 2013
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk