It has always amazed me that the approach for staff health and wellbeing has not evolved more quickly in the NHS. Sickness absence is higher in the NHS than the rest of the public sector as a whole and the private sector - and sickness levels are often just the tip of the iceberg. The affect of staff general health and wellbeing on patient outcomes is notoriously difficult to measure although anyone working on the frontline knows how motivated, healthy, happy staff can make all the difference in delivering quality services.
In my own experience working in healthcare there has been a huge variation in how staff health and wellbeing has been addressed, depending on the organisations I've worked within as well as the departmental sub-culture. Where I've worked in teams that have nurtured employee health and wellbeing there has been greater success and happiness - amongst staff and patients.
So why then, do we continue to tolerate myopic management practices that create long term problems in the health of our educated and skilled workforce?
The Boorman Review's recently published Interim Report re-opens a welcome discussion, suggesting that:
“Rather than relying solely on occupational health services, we need to move towards a broader commitment to improving health and well-being across the workplace.”
We work for about 40 of the best hours of our week - it's time that we stop separating 'work' from 'life' in terms of the quality of experience we can expect. What I would like to see is better structures in place which support staff health and wellbeing, more effective leadership and management practices and staff empowered with the knowledge, skills and scope to maintain and improve their own health and wellbeing.
It is true that many of the issues affecting the health and wellbeing of an individual are endemic in broader society but in a world where our work forms such a significant part of our lives there is a social responsibilty for organisations to be part of the solution and not the problem.
Lets hope the Boorman Review makes a real difference to the lives of staff and patients and is not just another tick box activity that results in a sticking plaster being put over this chronic problem.
To read more about the Boorman Review and to download the interim report, go to www.nhshealthandwellbeing.org
