Nuffield Trust: Staff survey shows concerning impact of NHS pressures on morale of our health workers

Responding to results from the latest NHS staff survey, Nuffield Trust Fellow Jessica Morris said:

“The results of the latest NHS staff survey are heading in the wrong direction. It might be unsurprising but is nonetheless concerning to see the first-hand impact of the significant pressures on the NHS on the morale of our health workers.

“More and more NHS staff are becoming sick with work-related stress, more concerned about gaps in rotas and are less confident their friends or family would be happy with the care they would receive. Despite the NHS promising action on diversity and inclusion we also see reports of discrimination against staff from black and minority ethnic groups jump sharply.

“This comes on the day that the latest British Social Attitudes survey reveals the biggest ever year on year fall in public satisfaction with the NHS, falling to 36%. On the back of two extremely difficult years, satisfaction has reached its lowest point in 25 years. Staff shortages remain a key driver of concern, with nearly half of respondents (46%) putting it behind growing dissatisfaction.

“But it remains the case that when people do receive care they rate it highly, this is down to the efforts of NHS staff themselves. But behind this, years and years of shortages and a lack of workforce strategy have overstretched and put intolerable pressure on staff. The pandemic has added much more on top. The journey to recover services and waiting times will be long and difficult and keeping NHS staff on board and supported is the greatest challenge the NHS faces right now.”