NHS managers are too busy to address staff health at work. So said the headline in the Health Service Journal (HSJ). The report on the launch of the Healthcare Management unit code of conduct provided the opportunity for Dame Carole Black to express her disappointment and frustration at the lack of buy in by the NHS. Of the 370 organisations signed up to date only 8 are from the NHS.
Dame Carol said: “Individual chief executives always tell me they understand the agenda but they’re too busy or they don’t believe the business case.”
Too busy to effectively deal with absenteeism? Too busy to deal with bullying and harassment at work? Too busy to deal with violence and verbal abuse in the work place? Too busy to look at the impact of increased workloads and staffing reductions? What else are senior manager too busy to do? Listen to staff; ensure fair recruitment and development, promote good patient care?
The online response from managers was swift and angry .No, not too busy for the health of staff but too busy for a bureaucratic form filling, tick box exercises designed to give the impression the DH is doing something. The initiative was dismissed as an exercise that focuses on support of staff with chronic health conditions, encouraging staff to stop smoking and offering healthy food in the staff canteen. In other words things Trusts already did, had already tried or had already discounted.
But it still left me feeling that chief executives don’t think the health and welfare of their staff is a good use of management time which must be reflected in how managers within the NHS behave. I am sure the NHS is not the only public sector organization where managers are too busy to manage.
Blair McPherson author of People management in a harsh financial climate published by Russell House www.blairmcpherson.co.uk
