The head of the busiest hospital trust in Sussex has admitted there is a “good deal of work” to do on staff morale.

Matthew Kershaw, chief executive of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, made the comments after it emerged just half of staff would recommend it as a place to work.

He said he wanted to create a culture where staff feel positive and involved and where more employees would recommend it to people looking for a job.

In the last two National Staff Sur veys, the trust’s level of staff engage- ment was worse than average for acute trusts.

And in an internal quick poll in
January last year, only 53% of the staff who responded said they would recommend the trust as a place to work.

Staff have also been under intense pressure in recent months as they cope with a surge in demand in patients.

Managers have also been working to find millions of pounds of savings which has also had an impact on morale.

In a message to staff, Mr Kershaw said: “I will start by acknowledging that, based on what I have seen and heard so far, we have a good deal of work to do on this.

“That is not to say there aren’t many examples of individuals and teams who are getting it right, some of which I have seen first hand, but more that our whole organisation approach can be improved.

“Getting this right for everyone is much easier said than done but I am convinced, from conversations with the many staff I’ve met, that if we do this properly it will benefit all of us and our patients.

“That said, staff do not get engaged by accident or wishful thinking and you can’t change an organisation’s ‘culture’ in a few weeks or even months.

“It takes a variety of approaches that are designed to appeal to and reach dif- ferent groups of staff across all areas.

“We do need to spend a bit of time talking about this in order to get it right but then we need to quickly get on with setting out how we will improve staff engagement and how we will know if what we are doing is making a positive difference.”