Six in 10 hospital pharmacists have to work unpaid overtime to complete their daily workload
Almost 60 per cent of pharmacy staff say they do not have enough time to carry out their work, according to a survey
of NHS staff conducted by the Healthcare Commission.
In addition, the survey revealed that half work an extra one to five
hours a week unpaid and 10 per cent work an extra six to 10 hours unpaid.
The most common reasons given for working extra hours were to meet deadlines
(83 per cent), to provide the best care for patients (78 per cent) and
to avoid letting colleagues down (77 per cent).
The survey also shows that 36 per cent of pharmacy staff employed by
NHS trusts do not believe that they have been allocated to a pay band
fairly under Agenda for Change.
The Healthcare Commission surveyed more than 128,000 staff across 326
trusts in England in October last year. The findings provide trusts with
information they can use to improve working conditions and will be used
as part of the Healthcare Commission’s 2006–07 annual health
check.
The survey also reveals that nearly two-thirds of pharmacy staff (61
per cent) had seen an error, near miss or incident that could have hurt
a patient in the past 12 months and 77 per cent had reported the last
error they observed.
A total of 87 per cent either agreed or strongly agreed that their trust
encourages reporting of errors and 61 per cent said their trust takes
action to make sure the error does not happen again.
Overall, the survey suggests that NHS staff are less stressed, suffer
fewer work-related
injuries and see fewer potentially harmful
errors, incidents and near misses than in previous years. However, the
Healthcare Commission notes that there is room for improvement in making
hand-washing facilities available, with only 61 per cent of staff saying
that water, paper towels or alcohol rub are
always available when needed.
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