Western Sussex Hospitals draws up staff wellbeing strategy

The draft document, presented to the board at the end of March, outlines the general principles and approach the trust will take over the next five years.

The strategy document noted the trust’s results from the 2012 staff survey showed the percentage of staff stating they have felt unwell as a result of work-related stress in the last 12 months had significantly increased by 7% to 34%.

“There is an issue both with being able to take sufficient breaks and being able to decide when to take a break,” the report added.

The health and wellbeing strategy set out a range of principles and actions to improve the situation.

These included the formation of a “health and wellbeing group” with members coming from the board, unions, human resources, occupational health and other relevant teams.

An intranet page for health and wellbeing to reflect support and information available for staff should also be developed, events should be held to improve engagement and gain ideas from staff about initiatives they would like to see, and there should be a review of health and wellbeing information provided at recruitment and induction.