Behaviour workshops held as staff speak up at Shropshire hospitals

Staff at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals NHS Trust are speaking up more than twice as regularly as they did last year and nearly three times as often as at similar-sized health service bodies, figures suggest.

In a new report, trust medical director Arne Rose stated that it was “clearly an outlier” and that the trust was responding to the issues raised.

Action to combat the problems since September have included “behaviour workshops”. Out of the trust’s 300 teams, 110 have so far completed them.

In the first three quarters of 2020-21 the trust's three “Freedom to Speak Up Guardians” received 224 concerns, with more than a quarter relating to patient safety or service quality and a similar number covering “behaviour and relationships”.

Dr Rose stated that that one reason for the rise in reports is the “increased visibility” of the guardians following an awareness campaign in July. A survey held in December showed just under 97 per cent of SaTH staff were aware of the scheme.

The report will be discussed by the board on Thursday.

The 224 concerns received between April and December 2020 compare to 96, 46 and 23 in the same period in the preceding three years. Guardians at “medium-sized trusts” receive, on average, 81 concerns per year, according to National Guardians Office data in Dr Rose’s report.

“We can see clearly that SaTH is an outlier but, most importantly, we need to understand why and act upon it,” he stated.

“One of the reasons for the increase in concerns raised in Q2 and Q3 pertinent to SaTH is the increased visibility of the FTSU team since July 2020 and the activities undertaken to raise their profile and improve culture.”

Forty-eight of the concerns logged so far in 2020-21 are categorised as “patient safety or quality” issues, while 46 are “behavioural or relationship-based”.

Dr Rose stated: “As would be expected during the pandemic, there was a significant increase in patient safety concerns with the majority raised about safe nurse staffing levels on the ward and staff reporting they can’t provide the care they want to because of lack of staffing and acuity of patients.”

These concerns were reported to the nursing leaders and their response included a recruitment drive, including international nurses and more admin staff, and a “pay uplift in Covid areas”.

“However, the situation remains a challenge for the trust and nationally,” he adds.

In addition to the 46 concerns centring on behaviour and relationships, 27 more were categorised as “bullying or harassment” reports. These groups included cases of “poor communication” around restoration of services and ward changes, alleged “coercion and bullying” during the redeployment process and “poor treatment when returning back to work” after periods working from home.