NHS staff from our area have shared their thoughts on their pay, working hours, discrimination or abuse in the workplace and staff numbers in the annual NHS Staff survey, released yesterday.

Employees from the East and North Herts Clinical Commissioning Group, took part in the poll.

Their responses include answers on national concerns, including staffing levels, pay, discrimination and the overall workplace environment.

More than half of the staff at the East and North Herts CCG say they work additional, unpaid hours in 2019 - 65.2 per cent - although this number has fallen for consecutive years from 72.8 per cent in 2017.

Further to this, 47 per cent of those polled said they felt satisfied or very satisfied with their level of pay.

But less than half of those responding agreed that there were enough staff working at the East and North Herts CCG to do their job properly.

The number of staff who say they experienced abuse, harassment or bullying from their peers more than doubled, from 7.6 per cent in 2018 to 16 per cent in 2019.

But those reporting experiencing discrimination from their manager or other NHS staff continued to fall, from more than 10 per cent in 2017 to 6.5 per cent in 2019.

The number of staff reporting feeling unwell as a result of work related stress dropped to lower than one in three in 2019, down from 39.6 per cent in 2017.

Responding to the results, an East and North Herts CCG spokesperson said: "As a CCG we value the feedback from our staff and this year we had the biggest response rate we've ever had to the staff survey. The feedback overall shows that East and North Hertfordshire CCG is a supportive, open and patient-focused place to work.

"There are areas where we are leading the way compared to other CCGs nationally. Staff here feel more likely to be able to meet conflicting demands on their time, feel that their role makes a difference to patients and that care of patients/service users is the organisations top priority.

"We also have more people who say they would recommend the organisation as a place to work than the national results.

"Of course as with any large organisation there are areas for improvement and the CCG has already arranged staff focus groups for the leadership to get a greater understanding of any issues. Using feedback from these focus groups, plus the results of the survey, each director will then work with their teams to turn what is said into an action plan for their area, with progress regularly checked.

"There will also be a CCG-wide action plan to address themes across the whole organisation.

Nationally, more than a quarter of NHS staff said they experienced abuse, harassment or bullying at work by patients or members of the public.

569,440 NHS staff members were polled across the country, with Secretary of Health Matt Hancock writing to each member of staff to condemn the high levels of workplace abuse and violence across the entire NHS.

You can view the results at: nhsstaffsurveyresults.com/homepage/local-results-2019/benchmarking-questions-2019/