First-rate care, First-rate people, First-rate value

First Community Health and Care excel in NHS annual staff survey

picture of First Community colleagues
Published on Thursday 7 March 2024

The results of the annual NHS Staff survey have been released and show that First Community is the best provider of NHS care to work for in the whole country.

Sarah Tomkins, Chief Executive said: “I am overwhelmed by the high standards of our results, some of which are the highest we have ever achieved.  First rate care by first rate people is at centre of all our decision making and these results clearly show these values in action:

  • 91.8% of staff agree that care of patients / service users is the organisation’s top priority (compares to 88.4% last year and 81.5% average for Community Trusts)
  • 88.1% of staff said that the organisation acts upon concerns raised by patients / service users (compares to 84.3% last year and 80.6% average for Community Trusts)
  • 89.4% of staff said that if a friend or relative needed treatment they would be happy with the standard of care provided by First Community (compare to 84.77% last year and 77% average for Community Trusts)
  • 83.6% of staff recommend First Community as a place to work (compares to 74.5% last year and 68.3% average for Community Trusts.)

Sarah continued “ In Our Plan (the first community business plan) we have a focus on People which recognises that people are our greatest asset and we want to retain the workforce we have, recruit the best people to support delivery of first rate care and to ensure that all staff feel valued, respected and supported, and these results help us all to see how far we have come and what more we have to achieve.  I am very grateful to the 71% of staff who took the time to participate and for their honesty in identifying areas in which we could improve.

I will continue to focus on getting all scores closer to 100%!  I love working at First Community and am so proud of all our staff and the standards of care provided every day.  

First Community is a realistic organisation, like many others we are facing a year of significant cost pressures and continued high demand for services.  I am confident that we are approaching the year ahead in a strong position but must continue to listen to our staff, patients, and service users to continuously improve and adapt as a local health care provider and employer.

We will work with our staff, partners, and patient representatives to identify how we can meet the challenges ahead and continue to deliver first rate value to all.”

First Community is an award winning community based NHS health care provider across east Surrey and west Sussex.   If you like to join First Community or know more about the services provided visit the website at www.firstcommunityhealthcare.co.uk/