Lies got poor old Pinocchio into trouble, and some would say that lies are getting HM government into trouble right now. They certainly know how to bend the truth, and what better way than through statistics. Each year an NHS staff survey is conducted (currently) by the healthcare commission of staff views and satisfaction with their lot working for English Trusts and PCTs. This years report was published at the end of March and suggests that 33% of employees suffer from work related stress, 45% thought their organisation put the welfare of patients first, 31% had suffered workplace violence or abuse and 68% of staff working in an acute trust said that they were generally satisfied with their work. Well this is all very interesting stuff, and no doubt the government will pick bits out to feed to the press, into their election speeches and the like, but what do these statistics really tell you?

Well the first thing we find out is that the response rate was 53%, not too bad for a survey, but the next thing is that 50% of PCTs weren’t included in the survey at all. In October, when the survey was conducted,  many PCTs were going through major organisational change (tell me about it!), so it was not felt that these members of staff should be subjected to filling out the survey. More like the results would have skewed the results! I wonder how many people in my own organisation were happy in their work, with their employer in October, I wonder how many of those working for particularly cash strapped PCTs felt that the patient was the most important priority? In October the new PCTs were formed, staff were feeling uncertain and were beginning to leave in their droves, from both clinical and non clinical roles. Some services have been nearly wiped out through what might be described as natural wastage, people leaving and their posts being frozen and although some recruitment has begun staffing will never return to the levels it was before. I am not arguing about the rights and wrongs of replacing like for like here, but the effect such changes have on those left behind, and let me tell you they wouldn’t have been kind to their employer in any kind of staff survey. It would have been nice to have been asked though!