Most NHS staff think they have too little time to help patients and the quality of care the service provides is falling, a survey reveals.
Medical and nursing groups said the “very worrying” findings showed that hard-pressed staff cannot give patients as much attention as they would like because they are so busy.
In polling YouGov carried out for the Guardian, 71% of NHS staff who have direct contact with patients said they did not have the amount of time they would like to have to help them. A third (34%) felt they had “somewhat less than enough time” and 37% “far less than enough time” than they wanted. Almost a quarter (23%) felt they had the right amount of time while just 3% said they had “more time” than they wanted.
The polling firm also asked a sample of doctors, nurses and other staff who have worked in the NHS for at least five years if the time they have to spend with patients has got better or worse since 2018. Nearly three-quarters – 74% – replied “worse”, while just 2% said “better”.
The survey presents a worrying picture of the intense pressures being felt at the NHS frontline. Those same personnel were asked if they thought the quality of care the service is able to offer has got better or worse over the last five years. Three-quarters (75%) said “worse”, including a third (34%) who answered “much worse”, while 17% said “about the same” and only 6% replied “better”.
However, a much smaller number (56%) thought quality of care had declined in their own workplace. Three in 10 said the care provided in their place of work was “about the same” and 12% replied “better”.
YouGov last month carried out an online survey of 1,058 NHS staff across the UK who were representative of the service’s 1.4 million-strong workforce. Those polled also included ambulance workers, midwives and managers based in hospitals, health centres and other settings. Not all respondents answered all questions.
The Royal College of Nursing’s chief nursing officer, Nicola Ranger, said: “These figures are a shocking indictment of the state of our NHS, with the vast majority of staff believing that the quality of care that patients receive is getting worse.
“That more than seven in 10 NHS staff feel they have less time than they would like to have to help patients is very worrying. It means the quality of care patients are receiving is suffering.”
Recent analysis by the Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation thinktanks found that the quality of NHS care had declined since 2012 across most of the 150 indicators they monitor, caused by austerity being imposed on the service.
The chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, Dr Jeanette Dickson, said the NHS was under greater strain than at any time in its 75-year history because of the Covid-19 pandemic and “years of underfunding by successive governments”, which has left it short-staffed.
Dickson said heavy staff workloads were “hugely frustrating not just for the people who need treatment but also for NHS staff who genuinely want to spend more time with patients so they can provide better quality care”.
The British Medical Association’s deputy chair of council, Dr Emma Runswick, said: “Our own research has found that many doctors feel ‘moral distress’ because we cannot give patients the care and support we want to, with insufficient staffing, a lack of time and mental fatigue all major contributing factors.”
The King’s Fund thinktank carried out an international study to mark the NHS’s 75th anniversary on 5 July. It found the UK health service had fewer doctors, nurses, hospital beds and other vital resources than most of the 18 other rich countries studied.
More positively, the YouGov poll also found that despite the pressures felt, 73% of staff were proud to work for the NHS and only 9% were embarrassed to do so.
Sophy Hinchcliffe, a senior researcher at YouGov, said: “With the NHS increasingly under pressure amid months of industrial action, this research highlights how NHS staff believe the quality of care has fallen over the past five years.”
She added that, given the lack of time so many personnel report, “with winter often a particularly busy time for health services, it will be interesting to see how this translates to the experiences of frontline NHS staff in the coming months”.
The Department of Health and Social Care declined to comment directly on the survey’s findings. A spokesperson highlighted the government and NHS England’s recent long-term workforce plan, which would bring a dramatic expansion in homegrown health professionals.
The spokesperson added: “There are already more NHS staff caring for patients than ever before, including 5,800 more doctors and over 14,900 [more] nurses compared to this time last year.”
