Bullying and harassment of gay staff has prompted a Brighton hospital chief to speak out.
Duncan Selbie, who runs the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, said in a newsletter to staff: “We have a particular problem around the experience of our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) staff.
“Our LGBT forum recently conducted its own survey – 40 per cent of those who responded said they had been subjected to or witnessed some form of homophobic bullying or harassment.
“Some of the specific examples described made extremely uncomfortable reading.
“Having concluded, two years ago, that we were failing to adequately protect and support our BME [black and minority ethnic] staff we are investing a great deal in addressing this and promoting race equality.
“We need to also address this problem.
“I have a personal responsibility to create an environment in which everyone is able to do their job to the best of their ability without experiencing harassment or discrimination.
Taunts
“We must all be ready to challenge incidences where people we work with are subjected to taunts, ridicule or insults that relate to their sexuality, or any other reason.
“I am asking managers to take every reported incident of bullying or harassment seriously and to ensure an appropriate response.
“Challenging the behaviour of people we work closely with is, however, never easy.
“So for managers who need help with this, or to resolve a conflict with an individual or between members of their team, we have, this week, launched a new mediation service.”
The trust which runs the Royal Sussex – Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust – has trained four members of its human resources team to be independent mediators.
Mr Selbie also wrote about the findings of the national NHS staff survey.
He said: “In the findings of the 2010 survey, published last month, we did particularly well on staff agreeing that their role makes a difference to patients and feeling valued by their colleagues.
“The findings also told us we need to focus on improving the quality and frequency of appraisals and up our game on tackling harassment and bullying of our staff by patients and relatives and sadly by other staff too.”
On appraisals, he said: “We have historically been hopeless at ensuring they happen and, when they do, that they are relevant and motivational.
“To make this easier, a greatly simplified appraisal form and process will be launched next week.”
Positive findings
And he added: “For every example of where we are not getting it right, there are of course many more examples of where we are.”
Among the positive findings were that 94 per cent of staff at the Royal Sussex and at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath agreed that their role made a difference to patients.
And 80 per cent felt valued by their work colleagues.
The trust also scored in the top 20 per cent for the proportion of staff who felt that the hospitals provided equal opportunities for career progression or promotion.
Questionnaires were sent to 850 randomly selected staff and covered themes such as
- staff satisfaction with their roles
- personal development and training
- health, wellbeing and safety
- support and opportunities.
The trust also scored better than the national average on the theme of staff satisfaction.
