Bullying in the NHS

Research by public services union UNISON points to widespread bullying in the NHS, the biggest single employer in the UK and Europe. A 2010 study for UNISON by employment information organisation IDS, examined the NHS Staff Survey and found that three-quarters (75.4%) of respondents had seriously considered leaving their job in the previous 12 months because of increased stress and workload, with over a third willing to consider leaving the health care sector altogether.

The results of the TUC 2012 safety reps survey confirm this bleak picture, with stress as the hazard most frequently cited by reps working in the health sector (75%), followed by bullying and harassment (54%). Overwork is the fourth most frequently cited hazard (38%), followed by violence (29%).

Some individual trusts perform worse than others. An NHS staff survey in April 2011 found particularly high levels of bullying at Kent hospitals and ambulance services, which UNISON reps blamed in part on the huge pressure on Trusts to meet targets within a shrinking budget, and on a failure to train and support managers. “The scenario just hands itself to bullying, and it’s going to happen more and more.”

High levels of bullying were also reported at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, Newcastle and County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trusts, Sunderland Teaching PCT and Gateshead PCT.

A University of Durham survey of 3,000 staff at seven trusts conducted in 2011 for NHS Employers (reported in the Nursing Times) concluded that Trusts need to develop cultures in which reporting of bullying is encouraged, policies are seen as effective and each report of bullying is taken seriously. The survey highlighted barriers to reporting, with 14% of staff reluctant to be seen as a troublemaker, and 11% thinking reporting could make the situation worse, or that nothing would change. A similar proportion revealed that they would not report a bully who was more senior than them.

Each year bullying and harassment within the NHS is reported to cost more than £325m — including the cost of sickness absence and the need to replace staff who have left their jobs because of bullying.