A STAFF survey has identified which hospital trusts in the region are recommended by their own workers.

The annual NHS staff survey involved asking hospital workers a wide cross-section of questions about their workplace.

One of the most interesting sections is where NHS staff are asked whether they strongly agreed with the statement that “if a friend or relative needed treatment I would be happy with the standard of care provided by the organization.”

According to the survey the NHS hospitals in the region with the greatest endorsement by their own staff are headed by the Newcastle Hospitals Trust (87.4 per cent approval) and the Northumbria Healthcare Trust (77.4 per cent approval).

The Harrogate and District Trust is in third place (77.2 per cent approval) and South Tees Hospitals Trust (75.7 per cent approval) is in fourth position in the region.

In descending order the rest of the region’s acute hospitals are rated as follows (with approval percentages in brackets: Gateshead Healthcare Trust (69.7), South Tyneside (63.6), York Teaching Hospital (61), City Hospitals Sunderland (59.2), North Tees and Hartlepool (57.2) and County Durham and Darlington (56.8).

Glenn Turp, regional director of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “It is vitally important that management teams across the NHS listen to front-line nurses, and health care assistants, as they seek to improve on their scores from last year.