Challenges of a negative work load and implications on morale, productivity and quality of service delivered in NHS laboratories in England

6^th World Nursing and Healthcare Conference

August 15-17, 2016 London, UK

Erhabor Osaro and Njemanze Chima

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, UK

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

The National Health Service (NHS) is a term used to describe the publicly funded healthcare delivery system providing quality healthcare services in the United Kingdom. There are several challenges militating against the effective laboratory service delivery in the NHS in England. Biomedical scientists work in healthcare to diagnose disease and evaluate the effectiveness of treatment through the analysis of body fluids and tissue samples from patients. They provide the â�?�?engine roomâ�? of modern medicine with 70% of diagnosis based on the laboratory results generated by them. This review involved the search of literature for information on working condition of biomedical scientist in the NHS in England. Laboratory service delivery in the NHS in England faces numerous daunting challenges; staffing levels in the last few years have become dangerously low, less remunerated, relatively less experienced and predominantly band 5â�?�?s, multidisciplinary rather than specialty based, associated with working more unsocial hours without adequate recovery time, de-banding of staff, high staff turnaround, profit and cost driven rather than quality. These factors has resulted in burn out, low morale, high sickness absences, increased error rate, poor team spirit, diminished productivity and suboptimal laboratory service delivery. There is the urgent need to retract our steps on unpopular policies to ensure that patient care is not compromised by ensuring adequate staffing level and mix, ensuring adequate remuneration of laboratory staff, implementing evidenced-based specialty oriented service, determining the root cause/s for the high staff turnover and implementing corrective action, identifying other potential sources of waste in the system rather than pruning the already dangerously low staffing levels and promoting a quality delivery side by side cost effectiveness.

Biography :

Erhabor Osaro is a Chartered Scientist and Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Science of London. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Immunohematology. He completed the University of Greenwich Specialist Training in Blood Transfusion and Laboratory Quality Management System. His teaching experience spans both Nigeria and the United Kingdom. He is a recipient of several awards including the famous British Blood Transfusion Society young scientist award and the Margaret Kenwright young scientist award. He is a registration portfolio verifier/examiner for the Institute of Biomedical Science of London. He is the author of 4 scientific books and 5 chapters of scientific books. He is a Member of the Editorial Board as well as an article reviewer to several International Scientific Journals. A well published contributor with more than 100 published articles in the field of Infectious Diseases, Immunohematology and Transfusion Medicine. His work now spans the connected research themes of hematology, immunology, transfusion science, tropical infectious disease and breast cancer.

Email: n_osaro@yahoo.com