NHS should treat staff better?

[crunchymint]

DO is leaving the NHS. A friend who is a nurse is planning a move to the private sector, and my aunt a nurse had already left. All 3 care about the NHS and had every intention of staying there for life. But all 3 have/had enough.
My friend was in tears today saying this week has been particularly bad as they have been so understaffed that it was dangerous. She said she just can't do it any more.
My Aunt left a year ago because she was fed up of the awful way staff were treated by management, which simply led to a shortage of staff and their total reliance on expensive agency staff.
None of this is rocket science. If you want to retain staff, have enough staff and treat them decently.

I have 30 years NHS service and work in a Band 7 clinical role. Most days I could weep, but for my fabulous colleagues who keep turning up every day and trying their best. My immediate managers are very good and supportive, as is the Profesional lead but the pressure is just immense, and yes, many days things are not safe. Every profession is losing staff at an alarming rate and we cannot for the life of us recruit.
The NHS is going to die unless there is some serious intervention.

Yes friend said this week nobody died who should not have, but she honestly does not know how. She wasn't talking about someone not being washed, but about obs and medical care not always being carried out.

Cuts to beds and lack of social care mean that nursing in the community is just as stretched too. CPN 's I know are all leaving due to unmanageable workloads. Too sad.

To be fair I think this could account for any type of 'staff'.

It is really hard at the moment. It just makes my heart break when patients have to be in corridors- this time it's not only A&E but in assessment units and wards.

YANBU there is a horrible culture of bullying in the NHS and it's getting worse.

Why is the NHS past saving? It needs more funding, and more staff, sure. But the fact that is doesn't have them is pure politics. There used to be a government commitment to try and match average health spending in the rest of the EU. By 2016 we'd fallen so far behind that it would have needed a 30% increase in health spending - £43 billion - to reach that target. That's not an unachievable dream, it's just the average of what the rest of Europe already does.

Obviously they have very different systems, but there's no reason to think that an NHS with 30% more funding (held stable over a long period) wouldn't match or exceed the quality of care provided in any other country.

More money won't stop the issues with the NHS. All governments have had issues with it.

There needs to be a serious talk about the way forward, minus the politics.

It needs more money and a full root and branch review. And to stop being a political football.

I left a senior management / corporate position at an NHS provider recently. I was absolutely gutted to leave. The job should have been spot on with my personal values but in actuality I saw poor leadership and mismanagement at every level.

It was a severe problem both within my own organisation and the local nhs and social care system.

I’m an extremely resilient person but it burnt me out. I was very unwell and have been advised it could take two years to recover fully.

There were some very caring people who were appalling leaders and managers. There were also some absolute arseholes. The whole place was hamstrung by a finance-led culture that was headed by a toxic and unpleasant power hungry man.

I’m glad to be out.

The issue with the NHS is that we're losing staff faster than we can gain them, and patients are coming thick and fast.

We train brilliant staff - our nursing and medical training is brilliant! But why should our nurses stay here on a band 5, topping out at £28.7k? They're trained well enough that they can go elsewhere. They're paid the equivalent of £46k in aus. Junior doctors can go to australia for similar or slightly better money, and much better working hours.

Not trying to be goady but as someone who doesn’t work in the sector but genuinely cares about the nhs, what do hcp’s suggest is needed?

Properly staff wards and teams for a start.

Yep being a nurse has ruined my life due to bullying.

Difficult to say succinctly.
1- more money. The nhs has been underfunded for years. We spent less GDP on healthcare than the majority of the western world.
2- more staff. Not recruiting enough, losing more than we are gaining. Not training enough.
This used to be set by the DoH through the bursary system. Now the bursary system has gone, more students can be trained. However this is limited by the number of clinical placements spots available. Most depts/wards/teams maxed out already.
National shortage of many professions, resulting in international recruitment. Oh, wait, brexit, and so less overseas ppl want to come here
3- manage demand. Number of patients/ consultations growing 10% year on year. A lot of medicine is medico-legal ie we don't think there's anything wrong with u but we'll do a test to provide it cos I don't want to be sued later or get into an argument cos time is too short and I have a full waiting room outside. Get the right test at the right time not any test for anyone at anytime. I am not saying that we should ration treatment, far from it. Just need to be more savvy

I want to work for the NHS but my role has been contracted out. The structure around me is so complicated and fractured, it's impossible to navigate and work together. The true NHS that is left is the least profitable, highest risk.

The solution comes from both sides

We need a united national service
We the public need to own our own health