Jenny said:

[00:00:27] “It wasn’t just doctors, who replied. About 25% of all the people who applied were nurses. And we had a full range of healthcare professionals, although it’s quite right that most of them are doctors.

These are people who genuinely try the right channels. They were raising concerns. They went to the people who should have listened to them, and they felt that they couldn’t raise a concern or they weren’t listened to. And if you have a transparent culture of reporting and if people feel free that they can speak up on safety concerns. It saves lives. This is about making patients safer and making staff safer. It’s not about pointing fingers.

It’s about patient safety. Now, the other thing I just want to briefly say about this survey. Was this a self-selecting survey? In a sense, it was. But what was very interesting is that 50 percent of the people that replied did not report problems in this area. So there was actually quite a level of balance. Of the 50 percent of people who said there were problems, thirty percent of those said that they felt very bullied and harassed.

So this shows worrying levels of bullying and harassment about an issue which, as we approach a pandemic, is entirely the opposite way of how we should be proceeding.”

She went on to highlight that there was some good practice highlighted in the survey but that the bad practice was not just in hospitals but GP practices and care homes too.

[00:03:16] “You only need, as you know, yourself, one to two people to be ignored for a crisis to be potentially covered over. The only way you stop that happening and keep people safe, staff and patients, is if you actually say, please, any problems, speak up. We’ll deal with it in the right way.

And yet that’s how you keep people safe. If you’re a patient, you know, many people listening to the show, they all may have gone into hospital. They may have relatives in hospital. Do you want to go into a hospital and meet staff who are free to speak up about concerns? And there is an open way of dealing with that? Or do you want to go into hospital or to be in the community and be dealt with by an organization where people are scared. I ask you, where would you like to be looked after? And I’ll tell you, the safest place is always the place where people can raise concerns.”

Speaking about some of the individual concerns she said:

[00:004:56] Many who contacted us were black and ethnic minority doctors. Now, recently we have found out that they are at excess risk of suffering, not only severe detriment, but death. You know that we’ve lost over 150 health care workers, even though we entirely accept that not all those would have been because of their work. Now, one of them was hauled off a ward and given a half an hour dressing down saying, why are you asking for more PPE? He said to me, I am in fear of my job. You know, he’s not actually been sacked, but he is in fear of his job. Other people have been turning up to work in PPE that they source themselves and been told to leave the shift because nobody else is wearing what they’re wearing.

Now, of course, you have to have a standard, but how that should have been handled is “How can I support you? What is your fear? What are you worried about?” Instead, it’s the entire opposite. And people are looking at their colleagues on ITU, going off sick. How are they supposed to behave? Fear is toxic.

You can never have a safe way of looking after people if you’ve got staff working in fear.

The Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK), a non-profit organisation campaigning for better working conditions for doctors, compiled 602 anonymous anecdotes exposing the bullying that some doctors have endured from colleagues.

The anecdotes, shared with Nursing Standard, include some in which doctors have praised nurses for the support they offered.

One emergency department doctor told how nurses defended her when a day sister reported the doctor for drinking water and sitting down after not having had a break for 11 hours. The doctor was 28 weeks pregnant at the time and said she was ‘looked after’ by the nurses, who encouraged her to drink lots of water after she had previously passed out.

Another doctor recalled how a nurse left a cup of coffee and biscuits on their desk after seeing how tired and stressed they were. ‘I was so grateful I could have cried,’ the doctor said. But later a manager ‘sauntered in’ and poured the coffee down the sink, the doctor revealed.

However, among the anecdotes compiled by DAUK there were also incidents where senior nurses intimidated doctors.

One doctor said: ‘We had a new nursing manager that snatched a fresh [shop-bought] cup of coffee out of an emergency medicine trainee’s hand and threw it in the bin in front of her.’

Other doctors recounted ‘begging’ a sister for a key to the staff toilet, or ward sisters preventing doctors from having lunch.

The findings have led DAUK to call for health and social care secretary Matt Hancock to take firmer action on bullying in the NHS.

DAUK co-founder Samantha Batt-Rawden said bullying must be challenged, regardless of someone’s position.

‘We have no doubt that our nursing colleagues have faced similar treatment,’ she said. ‘We are one team and must stand together against bullying.’

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said a new plan for employers on how to tackle bullying will be published when the NHS People Plan is released.

https://rcni.com/nursing-standard/newsroom/news/doctors-praise-nurses-their-support-when-they-have-been-bullied-work-158271

The number of NHS staff reporting being unwell due to work related stress has increased yet again this year. In the NHS staff survey reported today over 40% of staff reported feeling unwell due to work related stress. The number has been steadily rising since 2016.

Worryingly the number of NHS staff who reported personally experiencing discrimination at work in the last 12 months has increased yet again. In particular, staff reporting discrimination at work from patients, relatives or members have the public has increased for the fifth year in a row, a 24% increase compared to 2015. Being from an ethnic minority group was given as the most common reason for discrimination.

Frontline doctors have often given this as a key reason for poor morale in the NHS, however the impact of discrimination is more wide reaching and may have an impact on career progression. It is concerning that only 71.2% of BME staff said their organisation provides equal opportunities for career progression / promotion compared to 86.9% of white respondents. Similar trends were also seen amongst staff with disabilities.

Dr Rinesh Parmar, Chair of The Doctors’ Association UK and an anaesthetic doctor said:

“Whilst there have been many improvements seen in the NHS Staff Survey we are extremely concerned that staff are reporting increasing levels of discrimination, in particular from patients, relatives and members of the public. BAME doctors make up a valued part of our workforce, as do International Medical Graduates, without which the NHS would collapse. Many BME doctors have told us they do not feel welcome in the UK anymore and there is no doubt this a reflection of this government’s hostile environment. We must do more to value BAME staff as well as those who have trained abroad, without whom the NHS would simply cease to function.”

Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden, Co-Founder of DAUK and an intensive care doctor said:

“It is extremely worrying that nearly half of all respondents to the NHS staff survey reported feeling unwell with stress just in the last 12 months. The fact that this number is rising year on year should be red flag to this government, especially at time when the NHS is short of 100,000 frontline staff. Doctors have repeatedly told us they do not feel cared for by their workplaces, and that spiralling workloads are contributing to occupational stress and burnout. Too often ‘wellness’ interventions such as yoga and mindfulness are put forward to try and address this but these programmes will not fix the core issue. What NHS staff need are real improvements to their working conditions if the government has any hope of stemming the haemorrhage of staff out the NHS.”

CONTACT

press@dauk.org

1. The Doctors’ Association UK (DAUK) is a trade association for UK doctors. Run by frontline NHS doctors, DAUK campaigns for patients and the NHS as well as advocating for the medical profession.

2. Results of the NHS staff survey published Tuesday 18th February. The national briefing document can be found here.

3. Last week The Doctors’ Association UK collated over 600 stories from frontline doctors about mistreatment whilst working in the NHS. A selection of these stories were published as the front page story of the Daily Mirror. Further stories can be given on request.