70% of NHS staff do not think “There are enough staff at this organisation for me to do my job properly”, according to the most recent NHS Staff Survey.
This morning NHS England published the most recent results of the NHS Staff Survey 2024. The survey offers a 2024 snapshot of how NHS staff experience their working lives on a national and local level. Last year’s survey raises important questions on wellbeing at work, amidst news of NHS cuts in staff.
When asked about looking forward to going to work and being enthusiastic about their NHS job, over 45% of staff responded positively (Often or Always). Conversely, 40% of staff feel that NHS work is frustrating and 33% feel worn out after a working day either often or always. Feelings of burnout and exhaustion are common amongst over 20% of health workers.
The NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board registers the highest rate of workers who look forward to going to work (58.3%). This feeling is not as common for staff in the NHS Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly ICB where only 35.3% often or always feel this.
In the ICB of Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West, a staggering 54% of people responded “Often or Always” to “How often, if at all, does your work frustrate you?”. Additionally, 43.4% of staff in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough feel worn out at the end of a working day.
The data points that low morale in the workplace may be correlated to staff levels in NHS facilities. In Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, only 19.7% of people agree that there is enough staff and in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire this is only 20.5%.
About this map
The map below shows rates of satisfaction regarding wellbeing and staff levels amongst NHS workers for the year 2024 by ICB. To explore detailed figures for your area, double-click on the map or click here to view the full-page version.
Geodata context
The staff survey results come amidst news of plans to cut NHS England workforce by half, following a new restructure.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation: “These changes represent the biggest reshaping of the NHS’s national architecture in more than a decade,”
Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England: “As part of this, they will be looking at ways of radically reducing the size of NHS England that could see the centre decrease by around half,”
Helga Pile, head of health at UNISON: “Employees there have already been through the mill with endless rounds of reorganisation. What was already a stressful prospect has now become more like a nightmare.”
“Fixing a broken NHS needs a proper plan, with central bodies resourced and managed effectively so local services are supported.
“Rushing through cuts brings a risk of creating a further, more complicated mess and could ultimately hold the NHS back. That would let down the very people who need it most, the patients.”