Alberta health staff answer negatively to survey

A majority of doctors, nurses and other staff who responded to an Alberta Health Services survey are indifferent about working for the board and pessimistic about its future.

In an entry on his blog, president Stephen Duckett acknowledged the survey results are "mixed, but overall not good."

The survey was conducted between Jan. 27 and Feb. 15 amid budget uncertainty and layoff rumours, Duckett pointed out. The province increased health spending by more than 16 per cent, to $14.85 billion in its budget released on Feb. 9.

Duckett said the survey revealed 41 per cent of staff who responded to the survey said they were proud to work for the board, while only 29 per cent said they were optimistic for the future of government agency.

Only 30 per cent felt that senior leadership set ambitious but realistic goals.

"I suspect this is an example where the environment and the budget challenge had a significant impact. We had a huge budget task that you probably thought was not possible to achieve.

'The results aren't really a surprise to me, but they do give us a good quantitative benchmark.' —Stephen Duckett, Alberta Health Services

"Hopefully, if the survey was redone today, we'd see a positive change because of the positive budget news," wrote Duckett.

Twenty-eight per cent of respondents said they had trust and confidence in the board's ability to achieve its goals. The same number felt senior leaders acted consistently and did what they said they would.

In a more positive response, 68 per cent said their job provided them with a sense of accomplishment.

The board will hold focus groups with staff at the end of May to discuss the results and work on improvements, said Duckett.

"The results aren't really a surprise to me, but they do give us a good quantitative benchmark to provide a basis against which we can measure improvement."