Published Date: 19 March 2010 Scarborugh Evening News

STAFF at Scarborough Hospital say they would not recommend it as a place for treatment, according to a new report.

Around a fifth of the health trust's employees, including almost 200 nurses, took part in the 2009 Care Quality Commission survey.

Fewer than half the staff who took part said they would allow a friend or relative to receive care at the hospital – putting the health trust among the bottom 20% in the country on that issue.

The damning NHS staff survey published yesterday included the views of 470 workers at Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Healthcare Trust.

Almost 2,400 people are employed by the trust, with just over 2,000 working at Scarborough Hospital.

The survey revealed staff who took part had marked the trust as having some of the poorest records for patient care and staff morale in the country.

Only 64 per cent of workers who responded were satisfied with the quality of patient care, which was one of the worst figures in the country compared with similar health trusts, and well below the national average of 74 per cent.

The report also revealed 39 per cent of nurses surveyed said they had been bullied or suffered abuse from patients or patients' relatives in the last 12 months, with 52 per cent saying they had witnessed potentially harmful incidents in the last month.

Staff also believed communication between employees and senior management needed to be significantly improved.

However, the trust did score higher than the national level in ensuring hand-washing facilities were available and had reported 96 per cent of potentially harmful incidents, which was above the national level