NHS trust staff ‘feeling very unsettled’ amid structural upheaval, directors hear

Clinical staff at the NHS trust running Wexham Park Hospital are feeling ‘very unsettled’ amid a structural upheaval of the organisation, a board meeting has heard.

The comments came during a discussion of the trust’s latest Freedom to Speak Up report, which monitors issues raised by staff at its three hospitals in Slough, Ascot and Camberley.

Top trust executives at the meeting in Wexham Park heard there was some ‘unease’ among staff due to the ‘significant organisational changes’ taking place as part of an efficiency drive.

Steven Roots, who leads the Freedom to Speak Up scheme, told the meeting that complaints included ‘middle and senior management concerns’ as well as issues relating to ‘behaviours and styles of leadership’.

More reports had been made about financial and staffing constraints, and some people ‘not feeling listened to when they have concerns’.

He said the number of cases reported was 42 in the first quarter of the year, 50 in the second, and 45 in the first two months of quarter three – the latest available data.

The Freedom to Speak Up report showed that problems reported with senior and middle managers had more than doubled compared with the same period last year.

Safety and well-being reports also increased, as did those regarding work processes.

However, bullying and harassment cases decreased, as did patient safety cases.

Most issues (46 per cent) were flagged in Nursing and Midwifery, the largest staff group, while admin and clerical staff saw the second most (26 per cent).

NHS Frimley Health Foundation Trust, along with the wider NHS, is going through significant changes and is under pressure to make financial savings and improve efficiency.

It will need to make reforms for the Government’s 10-year NHS plan.

Reforms will also need to be made in order to meet its own strategy for 2030, which includes more than £50 million of investment in Wexham Park.

The trust implemented a restructuring of its previous twelve clinical divisions into four new ones in early October as part of these changes.

Changes to corporate staff are also now under review, according to a report prepared for the November board meeting by chief executive Lance McCarthy.

Directors at that meeting heard from chief of nursing and midwifery Melanie van Limborgh and the trust’s chief operating officer, Tina Benson.

Ms van Limborgh and Ms Benson said team leaders often discussed cases raised through the Freedom to Speak Up programme.

Ms Benson continued: “I think we still need to do more, and I think we also need to recognise that we’re going through significant organisational change at the moment.”

She added: “I think we should expect that people are feeling very unsettled at the moment.”

Addressing Mr Roots, chairman of the board Brian Ingleby said: “The themes you were hearing from the increase in cases, in terms of people’s unease about the current situation, are coming through in the conversations that Melanie and Tina are having.

“So I take assurance from that - that what you’re hearing is playing into some of the senior conversations.”