How many free hot drinks and biscuits are excessive?

If free hot drinks and biscuits are provided to medical staff, ask researchers how much is reasonable to consume before being considered “excessive” consumption. BMJMore?

Some staff members are “taking biscuits” while others only eat a teaspoonful?

And does imposing restrictions on free snacks for staff only foster resentment and counter-intuitively increase consumption?

To find out, they surveyed 1,874 health care workers and researchers to find out how many free hot drinks and packets of biscuits they drank during a single visit to the hospital library, and “excessive.” I asked him what he thought.

After collecting data over a four-week period, we found that on average, respondents drank 3.32 glasses of water before considering it excessive.

This is slightly more than the average number of hot drinks (3.04) that respondents would consume in a typical day if left to provide their own snacks. Coffee was the drink of choice for just over half of the respondents.

The maximum number of free hot drinks allowed varied depending on the drink selection. For example, respondents who prefer free coffee consume more cups per visit than those who prefer free tea (3.44 vs. 3.29 on average).

Department or clinical specialty also appeared to influence the number of free drinks considered excessive. For example, GPs consume more free hot drinks than emergency department staff (3.67 vs. 3.22 on average).

Respondents considered consuming an average of 2.25 packets or more of free biscuits as excessive, regardless of their drink choice.

This varies by role, with doctors having a slightly higher threshold for acceptable packet counts than non-doctors (2.35 vs. 2.14 on average).

The number of packets recognized as excessive also varied by role duration (average 2.89 for roles less than 2 years and 2.16 for roles 8 years or more).

Although no formal cost-effectiveness assessment has been conducted, the researchers found that a centrally funded initiative to provide all NHS staff with three hot drinks (excluding milk) daily would cost around £32,692,935 annually. (€37,987,556; $39,570,875).

An additional 25p each of two snack-sized packets of biscuits per NHS employee each day would cost £128,188,286 per year. This equates to total refreshment costs of £160,881,221 a year, not exceeding his 0.084% of the NHS budget.

Researchers have previously found that free hot drinks were a more important workplace benefit than free mental health support, and free coffee was associated with improved morale and productivity. I am pointing out.

“Current concerns over NHS staff morale, recruitment and retention, the estimated £21.7bn cost of potential staff attrition and the well-documented challenges facing health and social care providers, Given the provision of free hot drinks and service, biscuits can be a valuable and cost-effective expense,” they wrote.

They said restricting access to biscuits and hot drinks certainly did not fit into the holiday spirit, and health care employers “should make biscuits and hot drinks freely available to staff.” and should leave the judgment to those who receive these gratuities, which in themselves constitute reasonable consumption.”