HOSPITAL workers have given a lukewarm response to surveys designed to boost morale.

Out of 1,170 people given questionnaires, just 325 returned them. Many of those complained of a lack of communication between bosses and ordinary workers.

Staff members in critical care and theatre were the first to be consulted in new quarterly reviews, introduced as part of a plan to improve communication with workers and find ways to make them happier.

But Alan Green, chairman of East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, said he was concerned by the lack of response.

He said: “I don’t want a series of these survey results coming to the board when 70 per cent of the targeted staff have not even been involved.

“We have got to get people to realise the importance of these surveys - as responsible employers, we have to respond to what the staff say.”

Of those who did respond to the survey, 49 were “dissatisfied” with communication from department heads, while 40 said they thought “strongly” that big organisational changes had been handled badly.

But more than 80 said they were clear about their own roles, while most had good relationships with colleagues, were happy with their training opportunities and felt supported by their immediate bosses.

The trust’s deputy chief executive Lynn Wissett said she was now investigating other ways of conducting the survey, including online, to encourage more to take part.

She said: “The response was disappointing, but we were also in the bottom 10 per cent of trusts for responses to the government’s national staff survey, and the same in the national patient survey.

“The results we did get have been fed back to the team members and we have come up with a joint action plan to address staff concerns. Hopefully, more people will get involved when they see us really acting on these surveys.