Staff at one of the region’s biggest hospitals are “happier and more engaged” according to a new survey which shows “significant improvements”.

Results show that staff engagement and culture is improving at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn, but some areas still require improvement.

The hospital recorded their highest response rate since 2017, with 45 per cent of all staff taking their time to fill in the survey.

QEH has improved in all 10 themes, with statistically significant improvements in nine areas:

  • Staff engagement score has improved to 6.9/10 in 2020 from 6.7/10 in 2019
  • Safety culture (Score 6.2 to 6.4)
  • Safe Environment – Violence (Score 9.3 to 9.5)
  • Safe Environment – Bullying & Harassment (Score 7.7 to 8.0)
  • Health & Wellbeing (Score 5.8 to 6.0)

The most improved question scores were as follows:

  • Staff say the organisation and managers take positive action on health and wellbeing and offers flexible working patterns (48.9% to 54.4%)
  • Care of patients/service users is my organisation’s top priority (68.5% to 76.0%)
  • I am satisfied with the quality of care I give to patients/service users (75.7% to 81.6%)

Whilst the results show a sustained year-on-year improvement to Staff Engagement scores since 2017, they also show there is more work to do.

Areas which require improvement includes staff experiencing work-related stress, educating the workforce about equality and diversity and inclusivity and staff feeling unrealistic time pressures.

Caroline Shaw, chief executive at QEH, said: “I’m delighted that the latest National Staff Survey results provide further external evidence that staff engagement and culture is improving at QEH and staff are happier working here.

“The trust is on a continuous improvement journey and is committed to delivering the best possible care to our patients and their families and a good staff experience.

“Our staff engagement and culture transformation programmes – which focus on kindness, wellness and fairness – are helping us to bring our values to life across our hospital so that we more consistently delivery compassionate care to our patients and their families.

“We can only do this if we have an engaged workforce and the programmes of work and changes we are making – including the introduction of new staff networks and strengthened health and wellbeing support and reward and recognition programme as well as our wide range of listening forums for our staff – will ensure that all members of QEH are valued and respected and want to give their best every day.”