NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale exceed national survey results

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The results of the latest annual survey of NHS staff carried out by the Care Quality Commission shows that the Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Primary Care Trust has significantly improved in most areas and are either meeting or exceeding the national average.

NHS staff were asked for their views on working in the NHS in October 2009, the top four ranking scores for Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale are:

• 100% of staff reporting errors, near misses of incidents witnessed in the last month 
• 87% of staff using flexible working options 
• 75% of staff able to contribute improvements at work 
• Just 4% of staff experiencing discrimination at work in the last 12 months

The four key findings in which Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Primary Care Trust compares least favourably with other primary care trusts in England are:

• Fairness and effectiveness of incident reporting procedures (3.35 out of 5) 
• Only 33% of staff have had equality and diversity training in the last 12 months 
• 64% of staff appraised in the last 12 months 
• 29% of staff having well structured appraisals in the last 12 months

The results of the survey show that staff at Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale excelled in all areas of the staff pledge to provide staff with clear roles responsibilities and rewarding jobs, this category outlines that staff felt appreciated by colleagues, working in a well structured team environment and using flexible working options.

However, the results show that the work pressure felt by staff is worse than the national average, and has gone up since the previous survey in 2008.

The trust also received praise in the infection control and hygiene section by being better than the national average for always having hand washing materials available.

The best improvements for the trust were seen in the reporting of errors, near misses or incidents witnessed in the last month and staff being able to contribute towards improvements at work.

Compared to all other Primary Care Trusts in England the staff at Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale were below/better than the national average in areas relating to violence and harassment. With fewer people experiencing physical violence from patients, however, the perception of effective action from employers towards violence and harassment was worse than the national average but showed an improvement from the trusts last survey in 2008.

NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale were unavailable for comment at the time of publication.

To see the report in full visit: http://www.cqc.org.uk/_db/_documents/NHS_staff_survey_2009_5NQ_full.pdf