Safety culture at hospitals ranked worst in country

Three areas have been ranked “significantly worse” than the national average by staff working at Shropshire’s two main hospitals.

And the safety culture at the hospitals has been ranked the worst in the country by workers.

A report going to the board of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust on Thursday, said staff identified a “number” of areas that require improvement.

The board is being asked to look at what action is needed to address the issues, which came out of the 2018 staff survey.

The report says: “Overall, the results identify a number of areas that requires improvement.

“Three of the 10 overall themes are significantly worse than the sector and national average scores.

“These themes are: health and wellbeing; safety culture – scored the worst nationally; staff engagement.

“Through consultation with staff, discussion at senior leadership team and agreement through workforce committee, our organisational priorities in response focus on safety culture and staff engagement.

“This paper shows a high level update on progress and delivery to key corporate priorities.

“It is also important to note that these are translated through at care group level and each care group have in addition identified further key priorities.

“Workforce committee will seek assurance on impact through two specific care group focused sessions.

“Board are asked to note that where actions are off track there is a recovery plan that will recover the position through June.

“This year’s response plan has been incorporated into the six-month delivery plan agreed at workforce committee.”

The trust board will discuss the survey results and what is being done to tackle the problems at the meeting this week.

Last month, Ben Reid, chair of the trust, told a meeting of SaTH’s board that it was “really depressing” how some staff viewed the organisation.

The meeting will be held at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on Thursday at 1pm.