NHS Trust responds to widespread problems of bullying among staff
Bosses at the NHS trust which runs Stafford County Hospital have outlined the response to the amount of bullying between staff highlighted in a recent survey of workers.
A shocking report published in March revealed one in five of staff questioned at University Hospitals of the North Midlands had been bullied or harassed by a colleague in the last two years, many citing their ethnicity as its cause.
Equality charity Brap and Roger Kilne compiled the report, which sent shockwaves through management at the trust with chairman David Wakefield promising a culture change.
Almost half the cases of bullying and harassment reported by doctors and dentists from a black or minority ethnic group (BME) were felt to be linked to their ethnicity. This was also the case for 60 per cent of BME respondents who said they faced bullying and harassment from a manager, compared with three per cent of white British respondents.
At the Trust meeting, the chief executive of the Trust, Tracy Bullock reported to the board members about the study.
She said: "Last month we published the report which looked at the culture in our organisation.
"As well as making this available publicly we have made this available to all of our staff and we are asking all teams to discuss how the findings make them feel and to share ideas on how we can collectively address the issues it highlights.
"We will be developing a collective response to this, co-designed with our staff to ensure UHNM is a great place to work for everybody."
Outlining what needed to be done, she said: "The need to challenge inappropriate behaviours was highlighted which included the need to empower staff to call out inappropriate behaviour.
"The issue of grievances being formalised too often was raised, and the actions being taken to make the process quicker, in addition to resetting the trust’s approach to focus on early and informal resolution of issues were highlighted
"The need to increase diversity of Associate Freedom to Speak Up Guardians was raised, and it was noted that an ongoing recruitment campaign was underway to appoint additional associates."
The Trust now has a full time worker dealing with staff worries and complaints about bullying and is trying to improve its diversity policy.
Literature has been handed out to staff letting them know they can speak out if they are facing problems and an animation video has been made for staff on the same subject.
In total 3,506 people completed an online survey for the Brap report and 31.2 per cent of staff at the trust, which runs Royal Stoke Hospital and Stafford’s County Hospital, responded.
One in 10 respondents said they were currently experiencing bullying or harassment and quarter of doctors and a third of nurses who took part in the survey said they had been bullied or harassed by a hospital patient or visitor.
