King’s Mill Hospital ‘best place’ for care in the Midlands, survey shows

The results rank Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Trust, which manages King’s Mill, Newark and Mansfield Community hospitals, as the acute trust staff would most recommend as a place to work anywhere in the Midlands, for the fifth year in a row.

More than 3,390 members, 61 per cent, of trust staff took part in the 2022 NHS National Staff Survey, well above the national average response rate of 46 per cent.

The results show:

• 81 per cent agree the care of patients is the organisation’s top priority – first in the Midlands;
• 78 per cent would be happy with the standard of care provided if a friend or family member needed treatment– first in the Midlands;
• 72 per cent recommend the Trust as a place to work– first in the Midlands and third in the country;
• 90 per cent feel trusted to do their job and feel that their role makes a difference to patients/service users.

Paul Robinson, trust chief executive, said: “These results show there is much to be proud of at SFH and it is great to see that, despite the many national challenges across the NHS, colleagues’ overall experience of working at SFH ranks among the very best in the country.

“Our people are what makes the trust one of the best and I want to say a massive thank you to everyone for continuing to deliver quality, safe and compassionate care, particularly during challenging times.

“The fact that some of our scores are the best they’ve been in five years, shows we are making real progress on our journey to have a culture of continuous improvement.

“We recognise many of our colleagues are feeling the strain mentally, physically and financially. We’ll be working through the results in more detail in the coming weeks and using the information to drive forward further improvement.”

The survey did identify some areas of improvement. The trust said, while harassment and bullying among staff is at its lowest for five years, there have been more experiences of bullying, harassment, discrimination, violence and aggression from patients and members of the public towards staff than ever before.