NHS Admin Role - Overwhelmed

[Riddlediddle]

Not really sure why I'm writing this post -probably just to vent and try and get all of my thoughts out before bed so I can hopefully get some sleep. I'm NHS Admin and I'm just completely overwhelmed by the workload. We are literally drowning in work and everyday the backlog is getting worse and worse. Currently we are only 2 Admin staff supporting a team of 28 Clinicians and a client base of over 6000 patients. Wait times are now so long that all day we are dealing with highly abusive phonecalls from (understandably) upset and frustrated patients demanding to be seen. The inbox to our service is receiving over 300 emails per day so there are currently over 1500 unread emails that I have no hope of getting through and by the end of tomorrow that unread number will have gone up even more. I still have dictation from October to sort, five massive piles of letters as high as me to be written to GPs and other healthcare parties that date back to June, I could go on and on about the backlog of work but basically everyday at work is like hell. I'm constantly stressed and anxious and could just cry with the stress I'm under. I have no time for any kind of personal development as I haven't even got time to do the basic job requirements. We constantly tell management who sympathise and say we should have at least 4 more full time admin for a service with our demand but unfortunately we don't have funding for that and never will. I want to leave (and need to leave for my own sanity) but as this is my first NHS admin role I don't want to jump out of the frying pan into the fire - is this just typical of all NHS admin roles? Is leaving the NHS altogether the only way out of this hell? I've since found out the 2 women who worked in this team before us both had long periods of time off with severe stress and anxiety and both ended up leaving so this has been going on for years and there are absolutely no signs of hope that this will ever change for the better.

Hugs

no experienced advice, as i work on the clinical side. just breathe, do what you can, and then do what you need to do to stay sane.

Speak to your clinicians. If I had that tiny a proportion of a secretary, I'd be fomenting a consultant revolt, and bombarding the managers with incident form confetti. That ratio of clinicians to admin staff just isn't viable. Or safe. It shouldn't be you having to fight this battle, it should be people higher up the pay scale.

Thanks @plantathon I am trying to stay calm but the second I walk into the office and see the piles of work everywhere my heart just drops. I feel for the patients - they've come to our service for help and if they knew what a shambles it was behind the scenes they would be absolutely shocked and appalled. We are failing them (through no fault of our own) because we are so so under resourced and aren't allowed any additional admin staff. Yet they are able to recruit Sevice Leaders on 6 figure salaries who don't appear to be producing any work or value for our service at all. Honestly I could cry

@nocoolnamesleft you are absolutely right it is dangerous and unsafe practice. Clinicians are all very aware of the situation but nothing changes. One asked me today if I could relocate the stationary cupboard as she wanted to store her laptop in there - I mean seriously as if I have time to do that. Most days I don't eat or drink anything or even go to the toilet for a wee as I'm so rushed off my feet. They just don't care that we are both on the edge of being very very poorly from this level of stress.

That is just ridiculous and needs addressing. You can’t carry on like this and another reason why the NHS is in the state it is!! You need to go higher up with this and quick! Good luck op!

I am embarrassed that the clinicians aren't fighting your corner. It is extremely shortsighted of them.

We have 4 part-timers in admin to 3 full-time docs and 4 part-time ones. And a full time manager.
Always 2 additional on reception.
Admin work is still behind but marginally, things that can wait like physical note thinning and coding.
Yours sounds unmanageable and in need of desperate reviewing. Wishing you luck

The workload of admin jobs in the NHS is amazingly uneven. Yours is at the worst end, and you can definitely find a less stressful one. I would strongly advise you to start looking now, because the situation you describe speaks of a department with massive management problems.

We have been flagged to Senior Management as it has come to light via PALS that we are the Service receiving the most patient complaints in the entire Trust (1-2 complaints EVERYDAY). Still nothing changes. To be fair they haven't told us off about it as they know the complaints are all a result of us being in such an unmanageable backlog position. Even so its absolutely demoralising to know how unhappy our patients are. It's a shambles and I'm ashamed that we are letting people down so badly

Op I can absolutely sympathise with you. Due to an injury at work I was seconded to an admin nhs role last year. I went from working 13 hour shifts as a nurse on a busy mental health ward to admin within a community team. The stress made me ill. I’d gone from running a ward, short staffed, covid, very unwell patients no funding etc. To what I imagined would be answering the phone and replying to the odd email. It was honestly the most stressful thing I’ve ever done. I managed about 3 months then had to leave. I honestly don’t know how you cope and take my hat off to all in your position. We were (2/3 staff should have been 8) mashing every aspect of the running of a busy team.. abused by people on the phone due to frustration, no management support and treated as though we should just get on with it as we were “just” admin! The backlog of work was insurmountable. Honestly op it’s just not worth the stress. The nhs is struggling massively at the moment however there seems to be little hope of it getting better soon. Your skills are transferable. Your health is more important

That shame belongs to senior management not you. You're not the one failing the patients.

Could bank workers not temporarily be deployed to help with the backlog?

Do you have to answer the phone? Seems like that is making everything so much worse as you don't need people complaining and also wasting your time. Maybe set yourself small goals. You can't do it all and that's OK. A certain amount of letters typed etc. so at least if you meet your goals you feel like you've achieved. If it is still stressing you put, then resign

@Gingernaut nope. We've asked that but again they said the cost for bank workers would need to come out of our budget and apparently there is no money left in the budget for this just a massive overspend on clinical staff.

OP you can only do as much as you can do.

Stressing will not help and actually slow you down

Deep breaths and go to work and just do the best you can without disrupting quality and you can't be in the wrong

@sleepyhoglet yes unfortunately so. It is part of the Sevice Level Agreemenr (drawn up by the Service Lead) that all phonecalls will be answered within 5 rings at which point it goes to voicwmail. There is then a promise that we will always call them back within 2 hours on a working day

OP this sounds horrendous but I’m not sure getting at clinical staff is the answer, they are equally overwhelmed and may not have any power over the situation anyway. I’m a GP and our admin staff are biting our heads off all the time at the moment but they don’t know how much pressure we are under too. I have zero power to make changes as a salaried GP rather than a partner but I’m not sure our admin staff understand this. Like you I am employed by the practice to do a job. And would love to have more clinical and admin staff but am aware there simply isn’t the money for it. Get angry at the government and overpaid managers instead. And in your shoes I would absolutely leave. I don’t think all NHS admin jobs are quite this bad if you want to stay within it but honestly I’d look for something outside the NHS entirely as being much more likely to have a reasonable and manageable workload. It’s not you, it’s the system (but it is unlikely to be the clinicians either).

@whysoserious123

OP you can only do as much as you can do.

Stressing will not help and actually slow you down

Deep breaths and go to work and just do the best you can without disrupting quality and you can't be in the wrong

Completely agree with this.

@Kyliealwayshadthebestdisco I completely understand it isn't the Clinicians fault but it is just a kick in the teeth when they see me absolutely drowning in work and then stand over me asking me to move a stationary cupboard just so they can put their laptop in it (when they already have adequate space to do this in many other places around the offices) and then spend the next hour hanging in the kitchen on the phone to their family laughing about Christmas then leaving work at 3pm (should be there until 5pm) because they "aren't in the mood for work today as it is still officially Christmas". I just find it highly disrespectful and would never behave like that in the workplace. We are all meant to be one team but behaviour like that causes a divide

It varies so much. I've left a stressful role for a non-stressful where I see a huge waste of resources of too many admins. Bloody ridiculous. I do need the money and my sanity though.
(Stress in new role comes from not very nice management, not workload.)

Personally I think you should leave. I doubt other jobs will be as bad as this one, especially if as you say your department is getting the most complaint.

This all sounds horrendous. Makes me cross that our NHS is in such a mess.

Am I the only person who thinks dictation feels archaic in this age? Surely it’s a hangover from when typing was something the secretarial pool were the only ones with real skill, but the reality now is that most professional people are relatively quick at typing. When typing from dictation the person has to process what has been said and write it, it’s laborious, compared with the author just typing what is in their mind. Typing is slower than talking I guess, but not by that much.

@Policyschmolicy have you ever heard a dictation? It's extremely fast and sometimes takes place while the patient is in the room with the clinician to save time. Interpreting the recordings is a very specialised skill. I'd rather the clinicians spent their time not typing tbh.

Or perhaps what I’m getting at is that I rather suspect the burden you are carrying isn’t really being felt by the clinical staff, who might be important enough for people to take notice of. There probably hasn’t been that much of a change to the service at their level other than maybe frustration at the admin being delayed. You are the one being overwhelmed.

Honestly, in your shoes I’d just look for something else.