Arrowe Park staff survey sees hospital rated worse than average in 22 of 38 key areas

Mar 30 2011 by Matt Hurst, Birkenhead News

ARROWE Park Hospital is rated worse than average in 22 of 38 key areas by the 2010 National NHS staff Survey, published this month.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) survey was completed by 289 staff at the hospital, which represents a response rate of 35%, slightly below the 37% who submitted answers in 2009.

Administered by Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, the hospital was found to have dropped significantly below the national average for use of flexible working options, staff feeling there are good opportunities to develop their potential, recommendation by staff as a good place to work or receive treatment and perception of good communication between senior management and the shopfloor.

For the latter, the percentage of staff reporting good communication dropped to just 18%, from 27% in 2009 and compared to 26% nationally.

The percentage of staff feeling there are good opportunities to develop their potential at work dropped by 10%, with only 33% of those who responded agreeing, compared to 43% in 2009.

The hospital did produce some good results, most notably in an assessment of the percentage of staff reporting errors, near misses or incidents, which rose to 99% against a national average of 95%.

The level of discrimination experienced by staff is also low, at just 10% compared to 13% nationally, and the availability of hand-washing materials was praised, with staff rating access at 72%, 5% above the national average of 67%.

Arrowe Park director of human resources and organisational development Sue Green said: “Whilst the survey does highlight areas of improvement, we recognise there are areas that this Trust needs to focus on moving forward. We have developed an action plan, with the involvement of staff representatives, to address these issues.

“Staff satisfaction is a high priority and as such we have identified improved staff satisfaction and staff health and wellbeing as key goals for 2011/12.”