Unite the Union, Ireland Region

76 per cent of health and social care workers report patient care being compromised or unsafe either regularly or occasionally as a result of staffing shortages

Only 21 per cent of health and social care workers did not consider leaving their job as a result of pressures from staffing shortage in last 12 months 

Unite the union has released the results of a safe staffing survey conducted among health and social care staff which exposes the huge pressures on NHS staff in the region as a result of a crisis in recruitment and retention driven by low pay.  

NHS workers in Northern Ireland are set to take strike action this Thursday (18 January) over the refusal of secretary of state Chris Heaton-Harris to release funding to allow health and social care workers to review the pay increase already provided to NHS workers elsewhere in the UK.  

A staggering 81 per cent of respondents to the survey had experienced frequent staffing shortages in their workplace with a further 5 per cent having experienced that occasionally. A startling figure of 76 per cent indicated that they considered patient care had been compromised or unsafe because of staffing levels (44 per cent regularly and 32 per cent indicating it occurred occasionally). 

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Low pay in health has generated a deep crisis in staffing levels. Scandalously the secretary of state for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris is refusing to release funds to at least deliver the meagre increase given to NHS workers in the rest of the UK.

“This survey confirms that the industrial action of health workers and that of public sector workers generally is not just about improving their own pay but to demand action on the staffing crisis which is undermining public services and compromising safety.” 

The survey also found that 58 per cent of those responding to the survey indicated that they had regularly worked beyond their contracted hours (including missing rest breaks, working through lunch and unpaid overtime) while a further 27 per cent said that was an occasional experience.

Asked how often they had felt tired at work because of the staffing pressures, 68 per cent responded regularly and 28 per cent occasionally.  In a concerning development only 21 percent of HSC workers had not considered leaving their job in the last year as a result of pressures arising from the low-paid led staffing crisis. 66 per cent had raised concerns over safe staffing in their working area or department and 68 per cent reported being stressed at work because of inadequate staffing regularly, with 28 per cent being stressed occasionally as a result.