Oh my Blog!!!

I recently had thee most diplomatic dressing down from our WebMaster the other day for not posting on my blog, or sending him information to keep our website up to date.
Imagine my embarrassment to discover it's been a year since I last blogged!!!

And what a year it's been!!

We have been campaigning against our Trust Board's decision to privatise 10% of your local hospitals services. Despite a vigorous and noisy campaign, the Trust Board is going to announce on 28th March which company has won the bid to run the entire Estates and Facilities department at NUHT.

We will no doubt be meeting with the 'preferred provider' very soon so they can give us the details of how they intend to make this contract work and what that actually means for our members.

Also this week the Government announced their latest 'pay' offer to NHS staff.
This amounted to a 1% increase but only for the 40% of staff that are at the top of their pay banding! and only for those in England! The details of this offer will be available on our website next week.

When I read that the offer was 1% I thought there had been a typo, as I had remembered that there was talk of an 11% pay rise but when I did a bit more research this was what the MP's Pay Review Body was recommending for them, which they are implementing in full!!
So 1% for less than half the NHS staff, compared with 11% for MPs.
(don't even get me started on the Bankers bonuses!!)

So much for the notion that 'we are all in this together'.

The Good News

Hi,

Many, many apologies for the length of time between my 'weekly' blogs, (maybe that should read 'weakly' blogs) but it has been totally hectic at NUHT!!

The Treatment Centre contract has been awarded to Circle for another 5 years and this means that 100's of NHS staff will now be transferred out of the NHS to work for a private company, whether they want to or not!!

The Trust is continuing with it's plan to invite private companies to tender to run it's Estates & Facilities services and this could also mean 100's of staff being transfered to numerous private companies, again against their will!!

If that is not enough ,Medilink bus drivers now face being transfered to Nottingham Community Transport, as they will be running the service within the next few weeks!!

The Trust will reduce it's payment for this service from £1.115m to £600,000 per year. The Trust already makes £150,000 profit from car parking so this will immediately rise to a profit of £665,000.

Despite this the Trust Board has taken the decision to raise car parking fees for it's staff.

We aren't sheep so why are we being fleeced?

The Government tries to tell us that private companies running NHS services will benefit patients but how can healthcare be adequately by provided by companies who's sole interest is to make money?

So now for the good news....erm...sorry i haven't got any!!

LHS,

Bennie

'Market Testing'

Hi Blog Fans,

I have had lots of enquiries about the posting of my next blog, the delay has been caused by the large workload coming through to us since the turn of the New Year but here is the next installment.

When is privatisation not privatisation?

This is, of course, a trick question because privatisation is ALWAYS privatisation, whatever name management decide to give it!!

Our Trust is going through 'market testing' to find out if the in-house service is best value for money. This is happening throughout Estates & Facilities.
Unfortunately the Trust has decided that even if the in-house service is the best, private companies will be allowed to tender for the services which we currently provide.
This means that a host of private companies could be running cleaning and catering, or any other services that the Trust provides, within a few months.

This will have major repercussions for our members and for our patients.

History tells us that private companies running NHS services has not been a good.

They will be allowed to pay whatever they deem fit, almost certainly the National Minimum Wage, which is significantly lower than NHS pay rates.

Private companies will not have to abide by the same Sickness targets that the Trust is expected to meet.

Our 'unelected' Government is considering allowing private companies in the NHS to be exempt from paying tax on their profits... another example of 'all being in this together'!!

The Trust Board does have the power to ensure there is a level playing field during the tendering process and this must be exercised to ensure fairness and equity.

We will be making the opposition of privatisation at NUH our main priority in 2013.

On a completely seperate subject matter, can anyone answer the following question:
Scientists tell us that there is a 10billion to 1 chance that our DNA profile would be incorrect but there are only 7billion humans on the planet, so where do the other 3billion profiles come from?

LHS,

Bennie

Seasonal Greetings

Yet another busy week at NUHT!!

We have been telling the Trust that in the current economic climate there is no justification for a rise in car parking charges.

We have been pressing the Trust to provide us with the figures relating to car parking finances, and these figures show that after paying for the MediLink service, the Security contract and all the other things that this revenue is used for, there is a surplus of £149,000.

We believe there is no justification to increase car parking fees.

What we have also learnt this week is that the all of the services currently provided by Estates and Facilities are going through a 'market testing' exercise, which will lead to a tendering process, which could lead to wholesale privatisation.

NUHT's previous experience of having services provided by the private sector has been a very poor one, even by it's own admission.

The best way to prevent this mass privatisation is the collective strength of UNISON, so I urge all non- members to join us and existing members to get active in the union.

As we enter the last shopping days before Christmas, if you are going shopping this weekend or later next week for the sales please please please follow this simple rule:

Look where you are going or go where you are looking!!

Must go now as I have to explain what Saturnalia is to my neighbours.

LHS

Bennie

Under Pressure

I think the whole nursing community and beyond was deeply saddened by the death of the nurse from the Edward VII Hospital following the prank phone call from the Austrailian DJs.

What this shows, and I think this point has been missed, is the immense pressure that individual nurse are under. It would be wrong to speculate on an individual case but throughout the nursing profession there are dedicated, caring individuals whose first thought is always for the patient, and it is this that management play on as our terms and conditions are slowly eroded.

Since the 'election' of the Cameron/Clegg government (please note I use the word 'election' incorrectly) there are 5,000 fewer nurses working in the NHS, we are still in a pay freeze, our pensions are more expensive and for less return, staff are constantly unable to provide the nursing care that patients need and deserve, and yet there still remains the unwillingness of the nursing profession to take industrial action, citing patients will suffer if we do. I believe that patients are suffering because we don't.

On a more local issue, I blogged last week that the Trust had issued what were effectively 'complusary redundancy notices'. Well, I am happy to report, that due to UNISON's intervention, these notices have been withdrawn and we have made the Trust realise that it is not above the law.

Until next week,

LHS,

Bennie

This week at NUHT

Dear Reader,

What a busy week at NUHT!!

The number of cases keep rolling in, TUPE transfers, Dismissal Appeals, Sickness review meetings, the list goes on.

Lots of discussions with HR this week about the constant denial of our member's rights that we thought were enshrined in paragraph 3.2 of the Disciplinary Policy.

The greatest irony is that management appear to be ignoring this section of the policy, whilst at the same time disciplining our members for allegedly breaching other policies.

This appears to be one rule for staff and another rule for managers, and this is after we thought we had agreed these policies and fully expect them to be binding on both parties!!

Hay ho, we'll keep on raising these issues and we'll keep the pressure on HR to apply fairness.

We have been warning that the Trust will eventually have to turn to compulsory redundancy to meet the financial cuts they are faced with and we believe that a dozen 'redundancy notices' have been issued this week. The Trust have denied they are redundancy notices but we think any letter that informs a member of staff that they are losing their job IS a redundancy notice, an extremely unwelcome Christmas present!!!

Now is the time, more than ever, for you to be a member of UNISON.

On a completely different subject, I recall a famous quote " The only certainties in life are death and taxes", well, following a consumer boycott seriously effecting their profits Starbucks have been forced by people power to accept " death OR taxes" and have agreed to pay tax!

I hope the CEO of Starbucks has used his mobile to phone the CEO of Vodaphone to get them to do the same....I for one would drink to that...but not with a Starbucks coffee!!

Until next time,

LHS,

Bennie

Happy Saturnalia

Dear Reader,

Welcome to UNISON Nottingham University Hospitals branch's brand new blog!!

I have never blogged before so I hope I am doing this right.

I will endeavour to keep this blog updated so you are all aware what your local UNISON branch is up to and I guess more importantly, what the Trust is up to.

A lot of what I post may have to be coded so as not to fall foul of the rules on confidentiality, but I can promise you all that I will not post anything that is not accurate or truthful.

As the 25th December approaches and the commercialisation of this event begins to ramp up, I want you to take a moment to ask yourself what is the origin of Christmas?

The answer is the Roman festival of Saturnalia, a two week festival of merriment and partying, symbolised by master and servant swapping roles and servants being bestowed with gifts from the masters.

This festival was later hijacked by the Catholic church as very few were interested in a festival to celebrate the 'birth of Christ'.

So let me be the first to wish you Happy Saturnalia and invite you to reclaim the true meaning of this December festival and join us at The Rose of England pub, Mansfield Road, near Victoria Centre, for what is being advertised as UNISON's 'Christmas' Party (I still have lots of educating to do!!). 7pm till Late, tickets £5 from your local rep or from the UNISON office at CHN or QMC.

LHS,

Bennie