NHS staff morale approaching all-time low

Leading health experts have warned that low staff morale may be affecting care being provided to patients.

A combination of government-led criticism of the National Health Service since the Mid-Staffordshire crisis and budget cuts has led to staff morale being so reduced that standards of care are now at risk.

NHS staff are now so demoralised that, according to a report by the King’s Fund health think-tank, this is the biggest factor of concern to hospital financial directors.

The study also concluded that one in five NHS hospitals now anticipates being in deficit by the end of the financial year. Chief economist at the King’s Fund, Professor John Appleby, told The Independent that there was a link between quality of care and staff morale, saying that this was “very worrying”. “You’ve got politicians saying there are problems with the NHS”, he said. “I think there has been a feeling from NHS staff that they’ve had a bit of bashing.”

Labour’s Andy Burnham has said “Staff morale is at an all-time low because of this Government’s gross mismanagement of the NHS.

“Doctors pleaded with the Prime Minister to halt his reorganisation because they knew it would leave the NHS weakened.”

However, a Conservative health spokesperson said that the NHS was performing strongly with fewer (196,000) patients waiting longer than four months for treatment than in 2008.

“Labour’s desperate attempts to run down the NHS’s strong performance are wearing thin; we have reversed years of declining productivity by dismantling their bloated bureaucracy and putting doctors in charge.”

Chair of the BMA’s consultant committee, Dr Paul Flynn, said that the report findings were of “serious concern”. “Staff morale affects the quality of patient care, and the Government urgently needs to take steps to understand the root causes of low morale and address issues such as workload, work-life balance and the effects NHS reforms are having on staff.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Medical negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP, Medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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