Secret Life Of The NHS: 18 Things You Didn't Know About Working For Britain's Healthcare Army

18 Honest Facts About Working For The NHS From The People Who Know It Inside Out

Amid the heated dispute between Jeremy Hunt and junior doctors, it's easy to forget the work of hundreds of thousands of other NHS staff that continues around the clock.

A new survey of 300,000 of them gives a frank picture of what it's truly like to work for the UK's biggest employer, which has some 1.4 million staff.

It offers "unparalleled insight" into the experiences of staff, according to Chris Graham, the chief investigator from healthcare research company the Picker Institute.

People working across 297 different health organisations in England - from nurses to scientists and psychologists to paramedics, took part in the 2015 NHS Staff Survey.

The survey is the largest ever collection of feedback on working for the NHS in England

The results have already prompted calls for action on bullying, harassment and understaffing - but there are also some remarkably positive findings: NHS workers love their jobs, and they are seeing fewer mistakes from their colleagues than ever.

But the pressures are evident: a shocking proportion have been attacked by patients or staff, and a third would not trust the individual organisation they work in to care for a friend or relative.

These 18 facts reveal the highs and lows of working for the UK's largest, and perhaps most cherished, employer:

They really like their jobs

Secret life of the NHS

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