There are brave daffodils in the garden. They’re struggling against the wind. Give them a day or two and they’ll be ready to give us their gold.
They do, every year, just in time for the vernal equinox. A breath of hope that this year will be better than the last.
Also, about this time of the year, we expect the results of the NHS Staff survey which we read in the hope that this year will be better than the last.
Don’t hold yer breath.
There are 1.2m people working in the NHS, under half bother to take part in the survey.
It means, either; people are deliriously happy and can’t se the point of the palaver, or people are corrosively fed-up and can’t see the point of the palaver.
The survey took place between September and December last year. Why a survey takes four months to conduct is beyond me.
It’s taken nigh-on six months to unpack the numbers and publish the results. So… ask me what I think in September and expect it to be the same six months later, in March, is to travel in the similar hope that keeps people buying a Lottery ticket.
Taking part in this farrago is mandatory for trusts and voluntary for CCGs, CSUs and social enterprises. People working in primary care are not included. I guess no one is interested in them or GPs are coy about what their people will say?
By the time it’s published, the survey is out of date and next to useless.
Between last September and now we’ve seen the NHS ripped apart by Covid, refocussed around Black-Lives-Matter, kneaded and pulled into a different shape by a reorganisation and insulted by a 1% pay offer.
Why do we bother with this?
Dunno.
Why don’t employers replace it with something that tells them how they are doing on a daily basis?
Dunno.
Why would we be interested in findings, on something so ephemeral as attitudes, that are six months old?
Dunno...
... we could compare year on year but the external environment that plays such a part in how we think and feel, changes; has our partner lost their job… are the kids worried about getting their A-levels… is mum heading for a care home… will I ever get a holiday…
... I can't see this survey is a reliable indicator of anything.
That’s why most years when I see daffodils out of the window, I know I need to get ready to press delete on the staff survey.
However… this year there's a new bit in the survey (page 12) that makes it worth a look. It’s really important and has huge ramifications for the NHS, budgets, costing, recruitment, retention, performance and tariffs.
On the face of it, it’s an innocent enough figure.
Thirty six percent of staff have been working from home. Two thirds are social care people, half are CCG people, nearly half of admin, clerical and central functions workforce and even some medics.
Here’s the point.
If that number of people can work at home, during one of the most pressured times the NHS has ever faced, in the future, why do they need to resume their struggle through the rush hour, get on crowded trains and busses, spend a fortune in parking, add to greenhouse nastiness, sit in an an office… consuming heat, light, and creating wear and tear on office furniture…
… when they can do their thing from the comfort of their Chez Nous.
Even more important, the survey tells us 57% of staff like opportunities for flexible working.
The office could become drop in centres for occasional get-togethers.
More important; offices can be converted into treatment rooms and turn into income generators, instead of cost centres.
There are goodness knows how many people on the waiting lists and there are more being added every day. Sorting that problem is, in part, where do you do the sorting. Where do you put them all.
If we have learned anything from this survey, let it be; hosptials are places where people visit, get fixed up and go home.
Not places where people travel to and become fixtures, when they could very well be at home.
