The NHS is a brand. It is an incredibly powerful brand due to the emotion it invokes in people.
There are more than one million people that use NHS services in England every 36 hours, and those outcomes for each of those outcomes are far more likely to be positive ones than negative. This is the reason why the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, is nearly always seen wearing an NHS badge at public appearances. It is also the reason that private companies and social enterprises are happy to use the NHS brand with or without their own brand logo.
The Edelman Trust Barometer, a global trust and credibility survey found that employees have more credibility than executives within an organisation. It makes sense; employees are the visible part of an organisation. In a hospital if a patient has a great experience, they will refer to the staff that cared for them in a positive way rather than the people that run the organisation.
Staff that work within the NHS in England, Scotland or Wales are all proud of the NHS as both employees and as members of a society that provides universal healthcare free at the point of access. The vast majority would be happy to wear something that makes them feel part of the team. Some employees have a logo embroidered on their work clothing and others have NHS lanyards. However this is not uniform between organisations. There are some trusts that charge staff for the use of a NHS lanyard, and many organisations do not have the NHS logo on uniforms. For some staff, all they have to show that they are NHS employees is a small logo in the corner of an ID badge. Is this enough?
Every employee is an ambassador of the NHS brand. Perhaps every member of staff should have an item that they can wear whether off duty or on duty, to both promote and show affiliation the NHS. I wonder whether something as simple as giving out an NHS badge to every new member of staff could contribute towards a culture of ownership among NHS employees.
In unity there is strength and in shared ownership of the NHS among staff, very good things can happen.
#teamNHS
