MORE than 2,000 Barnsley Hospital staff who responded to an NHS survey about working conditions helped propel the facility to being crowned the best acute trust in the country.
The survey - conducted nationally in NHS organisations -- is the biggest gauge of staff opinion in the UK and involved staff answering a series of 118 questions about their experience of work, along with questions relating to staff engagement and morale.
Alongside positive ratings for line management, the trust scored best in the country for compassionate leadership.
Steven Ned, Barnsley Hospital’s executive director of people, said: “These are a great set of results and we continue to improve.
“Answers to 97 survey questions out of 118 were the same or significantly better than the previous year.
“Our survey results reflect well on all of our staff - there is always room for improvement and always organisations that are going to be better than us, so we need to keep going forwards and building on this.
“We work hard here in Barnsley to provide quality care against increasing demands and the survey results are important because they are used to improve care for patients and working conditions for all staff.”
Chief executive Dr Richard Jenkins thanked everyone who took the time to complete the survey.
He said: “It’s wonderful to see such positive survey results for the trust.
“We work hard here in Barnsley to provide quality care against increasing demands, and the survey results are important because they are used to improve care for patients and working conditions for colleagues.”
Sheena McDonnell, Barnsley Hospital’s chair, told the Chronicle more than 2,200 staff members took part.
“I am delighted to see our scores this year have improved for every theme.
“Colleagues are telling us Barnsley Hospital is a great place to work, indeed in some areas our results are the best in the country.
“Of particular note was the support in the trust for flexible working where colleagues reported the trust supported them to balance home and work life.”
She added that, while the survey results were welcome, the trust was not ‘complacent’ and knew there were areas where it needed to improve.
“The experience of some staff from black and ethnic minority backgrounds is sometimes not where we want it to be.
“We continue to work to improve this, listening carefully to the experience for those colleagues through our recently established race equality and inclusion staff network.
“We also know some areas of the trust don’t report the same levels of satisfaction as the majority of others, and this year we will provide additional support to those areas.”
