Dear colleagues

The results of the national NHS Staff Survey have been published, giving us insight into what working in our hospitals feels like for our colleagues and where we need to improve.

This year, 47% – more than 4,000 staff – shared their experiences in the confidential survey. It took place during an exceptionally busy time for our Trust, with record numbers of patients attending our A&Es and the introduction of our new electronic patient record (EPR).

Many colleagues told us they are proud of the care we provide and value the support of their teams and line managers; 88.4% said they feel their role makes a difference to patients or service users. And we’ve seen an increase in staff who’d had an appraisal and felt as a result their work was valued by the organisation.   

However, too many staff reported experiencing high workload, stress and burnout - 36.4% said they feel burnt out because of their work. The results also show that 16.8% of staff experienced physical violence from patients or the public in the past year, while 29.6% reported harassment, bullying or abuse.

Fewer staff said they experienced discrimination from managers, team leaders and colleagues although there is still more to do.

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.

We are also improving recruitment and career development pathways and will launch an in-house mediation service later this year to help resolve issues earlier.

One day. 183 patients

Our urology colleagues’ latest achievements demonstrate the teamworking staff also reported positively on in the survey.

The team, who care for patients with kidney, bladder and urinary system problems, saw 183 people waiting for their first urology appointment in a single day; and those needing surgery could have their pre‑operative checks, rather than having to come back in.

Congratulations to the consultants, registrar doctors, outpatient nurses, pre‑assessment teams and admin staff who worked together to make this happen.

‘I love being a robotic surgeon’

This International Women’s Day (IWD) we celebrated the successes of urogynaecology lead Roopa Nair. Roopa was the first in her family to go into medicine and had to fight her way into the male dominated field of surgery and robotics. She shared how she had to work twice as hard to prove her competence and commented, “Robotic surgery is my passion, so I was determined I was going to do it”.

Under her leadership, our Trust was one of the first in the country to use robotic surgery in urogynaecology, treating a range of conditions including incontinence and vaginal prolapse.

Her counsel is inspiring: “My advice to other women wanting to become surgeons is to not let others make you doubt yourself. Believe in yourself and be determined - there is no glass ceiling we cannot break”.

A look behind the scenes

While clinical staff treating patients are visible, often hidden are those supporting them in the background. 

We’re celebrating Healthcare Science (HCS) Week, so if you’ve ever wondered where your biopsy goes to be tested or what goes on in nuclear medicine, now’s your chance to find out.

Our HCSs work in laboratories and other areas to help assess and diagnose conditions, by testing bloods for example, so our patients can get the right treatment.

Local students visited our HCS careers fair to find out more about the variety of roles scientists can undertake. I’m sure they were inspired and I hope some choose that path - we couldn’t run our hospitals without them.

And in our pharmacy production unit at Queen’s Hospital, the team produce a wide range of treatments for our patients, making c2,800 medicines every month. 

These range from syringes of noradrenaline to treat critically low blood pressure in an emergency, to nutrition bags for patients who cannot eat or drink and personalised chemotherapy doses for our cancer patients. 

They are made here on site to maintain extremely strict sterile conditions and avoid any delays in getting these medicines administered. 

For patients, this precision can mean the difference between starting treatment on time or facing delays that could affect their care.

My thanks to our teams for who work behind the scenes – they play as critical a role as our front-line colleagues.