JUNIOR doctors at Southend Hospital are the victims of bullying consultants, according to a survey by the General Medical Council.

Inspectors working for the council’s national training survey found overworked trainees in A&E and acute medical units, a “culture of bullying/undermining behaviour from consultants to junior clinicians” and junior doctors’ concerns being ignored.

The survey, which finished in December and is reported in the hospital’s latest board papers, also highlighted high levels of sickness absence, a growing dependency on locums and a “bad reputation for teaching/training”.

One senior doctor, who asked not to be named, confirmed the bullying of junior medics was common practice at the trust. He said: “The bullying of junior staff is endemic, but it is not just junior staff – it is taking place even at consultant level.

“When doctors get to that level and are in prominent jobs they have families and children and can’t afford tomake enemies with senior management.

“Many senior doctors are leaving.

Four consultants have left in the last year, including a paediatrician and a gynaecology consultant.”

The trust expects to have a deficit of £7.8million at the end of the financial year, much of it spent on agency and locum staff, but the doctor claimed wasteful practices had contributed.

He said: “Doctors can be suspended on full pay for the flimsiest of excuses, usually from a person with a grudge. The investigations should take no more than four to five weeks yet they drag on for months.”

He added: “Too much is spent on agency staff. They could ask our own nurses and doctors to come in at weekends and evenings. They would do it if they paid them and it would be much cheaper.

“Too many doctors are spending time working in the private sector. Doctors are getting fulltime NHS pay, but some are not working full time. One consultant spends two days away from the hospital. If you Google any consultant you will see how much they offer privately.”

The hospital is looking at proposals to deal with the issues raised in the survey and the development of a long-term training strategy which will be considered at the next meeting of the trust’s quality assurance committee.

SOUTHEND Hospital says it is doing all it can to ensure staff feel able to report concerns.

Sue Hardy, its acting chief executive, said: “I firmly believe we must raise genuine concerns to protect patients, service users, carers and staff from risk of harm, and it is important we create an environment where all staff feel comfortable to do so. The trust has a policy which is available to all staff and clearly outlines how concerns can be reported.

“In January, we implemented an organisation-wide restructure which placed clinical leadership at the heart of how we deliver patient care. We recognised that to transform the way we work and to create an environment of continuous improvement, we needed to engage with our clinical workforce more effectively.

“The new clinical structure recognises the need to include junior doctors at all levels within the trust. We are also developing a programme of further engagement which will include forums with the medical director and his associate medical directors for junior doctors to raise their concerns, in line with recommendations made in the Francis report.”

Ms Hardy said the trust had a good reputation for teaching and was commended after a visit from Health Education East of England for its support of trainees.

Regarding agency staff, Ms Hardy said: “Agency spend is particularly high this year and this is largely due to a high level of vacancies. We have experienced difficulties in recruiting to a number of roles including nurses and some medical specialities, as have other hospitals nationally and this is something we continually seek to address.

“In the first instance we always use the trust’s bank staff to cover shifts wherever possible.

However, there are occasions where we need to use agencies to provide additional staff quickly for a non-permanent period or we require particular specialist skills to continue to provide safe and effective care for our patients. We are making good progress in recruiting to permanent posts and this is reflected in the reduction in agency spend in December.”

STAFF bullying at Southend Hospital has been a cause for concern for unions.

Dean Jones, Unison representative at the hospital, said: “We raised this issue a couple of years ago. Bullying goes on all the time. If we are informed, we do contact managers with our members’ consent to see if we can rectify the situation.

“However, sometimes a manager doing their job is seen as bullying. Sometimes just being asked to do the job is perceived as bullying so it’s not always justified, but managers need to be mindful how someone may perceive what they are asking them to do.”

Mr Jones said budget cuts had added to the problem.

He said: “Morale is low because staff are leaving and with the current situation they are not always replaced immediately, if at all. The remaining staff then have more work.

“The hospital runs on the good will of the staff who care about their patients.”

SOUTHEND hospital employs about 4,500 staff.

From February 1, 2014 to January 31, 2015, 3.54 per cent of days were lost due to absence.

The figures include all permanent, fixed-term temporary and locum staff.

The percentage of days lost ranged from 1.37 per cent for medical and dental staff to 5.08 per cent for estates and ancillary staff.

Nurses and midwives were off 3.84 per cent of available working days.