Swine Flu

HSJ and Nursing Times’s survey of almost 1,500 staff reveals a national health service largely confident in its ability to cope with the swine flu pandemic, but concerned their jobs are being made more difficult by hype and hysteria.

Broadly speaking, NHS staff feel their organisation is dealing successfully with the extra flow of patients, has received useful guidance from the government on how to cope, and has a robust strategy in place to minimise the impact on services of an H1N1 outbreak among staff.

However, confidence could be higher – in most cases those who agree or strongly agree amount to less than half of those who answered.

Attitudes also reflect the frequent disposition of NHS staff to praise their own employer, while being critical of the system as a whole. Our survey consistently shows that staff are more confident in their own organisation’s ability to cope with the outbreak than that of the health service overall, whether in dealing with extra patients or coping with staff sickness.

This comprehensive survey and results brought to you by HSJ looks at all the major reactions to swine flu and reports on the industry's reaction to the outbreak.

Health Service Journal is the UK's leading source of news and information on health management and policy. Targeted at healthcare professionals, it is an integrated online resource and magazine.

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