Only about four out of 10 health workers think their organisation is coping with the extra patients coming in during the swine flu epidemic, a survey has found.
Just 37% of clinicians, including doctors, nurses and midwives, agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that their organisation is coping well.
A further 30% neither agreed nor disagreed, while 13% disagreed and 5% strongly disagreed.
On a more positive note, many doctors and nurses said the government had provided useful advice to help them cope with the outbreak and most said they would not stay away from work if other staff became ill.
The survey of almost 1,500 NHS managers, nurses and doctors was carried out by the Health Service Journal and the Nursing Times.
It revealed that 59% of NHS managers thought their organisation was coping well and just 8% disagreed or strongly disagreed.
NHS managers were also more likely than clinicians to agree that the NHS in general was dealing with the extra flow of patients successfully.
A total of 56% agreed with that statement, compared with 32% of clinicians. A total of 19% of managers and 28% of clinicians neither agreed nor disagreed.
Copyright © Press Association 2009
How is your practice coping with the extra demand? Your comments (terms and conditions apply):
“Well so far. The initial panic seems to have subsided for now but the confusing media stories are causing patients to worry and lose a sense of perspective. It will be interesting to see what happens when we call patients for the seasonal flu jabs” – Name and address withheld
