\nelevator, and remembers nothing until they\u2019re coming down again. For the work (\u2018innie\u2019) self, it\u2019s the opposite: a day of work, return to the lift, then straight out again wearing different clothes
\nand wondering what gave you the dull headache you\u2019ve suddenly acquired. It\u2019s work\/life balance with a vengeance.<\/p>\n
So the missing question. If offered, what proportion of NHS staff would sign up for a complete disconnection between work and life?<\/p>\n
The 2022 results<\/a> give an impression. 34% of staff said they felt \u2018burnt out\u2019 because of work, rising to 49% for operational ambulance staff. Barely half said they achieve a good balance between their Obviously this isn\u2019t good for staff, nor – given the weight of evidence linking staff wellbeing to quality of care – good for patients either. In a previous life I worked with Mike Richards when To explain what\u2019s going on you may want to point to government policy, underfunding, the long-reach of covid, or even the lack of staff facilities. You may rail against useless bureaucrats and But all of this neglects that this isn\u2019t just an NHS problem, nor just about the past few pandemic-blighted years. It\u2019s global, and has been going on for some time. Canada has recently established a \u2018Coalition for Action for Health Workers\u2019<\/a> to advise on solutions to address \u2018significant health workforce challenges\u2019. Some of this is about global pressures related to pay and cost of living: in Australia there\u2019s an active debate as to whether staff should be allowed to supplement their income through OnlyFans<\/a>.<\/p>\n There\u2019s something far deeper going on here than a temporary blip. \u201cWhat\u2019s burning out health care workers is less the gruelling conditions we practice under\u201d wrote Eric Reinhart in the New York Times<\/a>, \u200c\u201dand more our dwindling faith in the systems for which we work.\u201d This has sparked a debate that the cure is to move the US towards universal health care. But that\u2019s equally to miss the point: we have universal health care, yet the issues steadfastly remain.<\/p>\n However Reinhart\u2019s point that this is fundamentally about \u2018faith in the systems for which we work\u2019 appears spot-on. This is the key argument of Victor Montori\u2019s magisterial Why we Revolt<\/a>: that healthcare has fundamentally lost touch with its core business of care. That we value industrial efficiency over kind, careful elegance. The language used by Montori, Dominique Allwood<\/a> and others about revolution is quite right: this isn\u2019t tweaking round the edges, it\u2019s a root and branch review of what on earth healthcare is all about in the first place. It\u2019s the same point David Haslam makes in Side Effects<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2018Great\u2019, you may well think, \u2018a global problem of fundamental importance, nice and easy then.\u2019 There is certainly a point about the level of importance we devote to this. No one really disagrees with Montori\u2019s diagnosis, best expressed in the UK through the \u2018Rethinking Medicine\u2019<\/a> movement. But very little is actually happening to progress these ideas. There is an urgent need for strong leadership at all levels to say that the staff survey results are incompatible with the NHS reaching its 100th birthday.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s also a place anyone can start. Our work at Kaleidoscope always involves a discussion of purpose: what are we really here for? It\u2019s the first characteristic in how we support both high-performing teams<\/a>, and collaborations<\/a>. It\u2019s at the centre of how we help organisations develop strategy – and it\u2019s great to see the wonderful Oxleas NHS FT, with whom we\u2019ve been privileged to work with for a number of years<\/a>, be one of the biggest improvers in this year\u2019s survey. In the seven years since Kaleidoscope started its been the conversations which have reconnected individuals to their own personal purpose, why they entered this profession in the first place, which have given me greatest joy.<\/p>\n Severance in healthcare should be a sick joke. Jobs in health should be the finest, most rewarding jobs anywhere. There should be no greater priority for any healthcare organisation, system, or country, than finding the path to make this happen.<\/p>\n Author<\/strong><\/p>\n Rich Taunt<\/strong><\/p>\n Rich is an expert on policy, improvement and strategy engagement and development.<\/p>\n Before founding Kaleidoscope in 2016, Rich was Director of the UK Improvement Alliance, Director of Policy at the Health Foundation and Head of Regulatory Change at the Care Quality Commission.<\/p>\n Prior to that he was Deputy Director at the Department of Health, where his roles included advising Ministers on health strategy, and legislating for reorganisations \u2018so big you can see them from space\u2019. He also spent time at the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury.<\/p>\n Rich is passionate about a lot of things but particularly improving how organisations work, understanding why people don\u2019t talk to each other, and the Premier League season of 1995\/96.<\/p>\n Declaration of interests<\/b><\/p>\n I have read and understood the BMJ Group policy on declaration of interests and declare the following interests:<\/p>\n Rich Taunt works at and owns shares in Kaleidoscope Health and Care, a Community Interest Company regulated by the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies. He is also Chair of Here (hereweare.org.uk\/<\/a>), and Deputy Chair, the House of St Barnabas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s a question missing in the NHS staff survey. Yes, it\u2019s one of the finest health data sets in the world. Yes, it gives the views of 600,000 staff over dozens of questions, providing a number of data points so colossal it comes second only to the number of NHS acronyms used in an average […]<\/p>\n
\nwork and home life. Two-thirds were enthusiastic about the job – sounds ok, but that figure was three-quarters as recently as 2019. Over 30% said they thought often about leaving, including
\n17% saying they will leave as soon as they can find another job. 45% said they\u2019d felt unwell as a result of work-related stress in the last year; this was 38% back in 2012.<\/p>\n
\nstarting out as Chief Inspector of Hospitals. The first bit of data he\u2019d look at when starting an inspection? NHS staff survey.<\/p>\n
\ndemand payment in Chief Executive blood, or think about what ICSs can do to \u2018sort it out\u2019.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmjleader\/files\/2023\/03\/DSC_8310-200x300.jpg\")
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