Overstretched and underpaid Plymouth medical staff 'on brink of quitting their jobs'
CONCERNS have been voiced that medical staff are overstretched, underpaid and 'on the brink of quitting their jobs'.
Recommendations have been made to a consortium considering how to make NHS cuts.
The Health and Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Panel met yesterday to pull together suggestions which they will present to the South West Pay, Terms and Conditions Consortium.
The consortium, made up of 20 NHS trusts, has been established to identify the best ways to tackle serious financial challenges facing the NHS. Options include cutting workers wages and benefits and redundancies.
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Representatives from Royal College of Nursing, Royal College of Midwives, British Medical Association, Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust and the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce, attended to give evidence.
Major concerns voiced were that many medical staff were on the verge of quitting their jobs through being overstretched and underpaid.
It was heard that at any one time in Plymouth, which employs 5,000 NHS staff, 230 would be off work, costing £7 million a year. And much of this leave could be due to stress and illness. It was also heard that in Plymouth between 63 and 80 per cent of staff never received an appraisal which meant they could never receive pay increments.
Plymouth's Chamber of Commerce said that for every £1 cut in wages in Plymouth's NHS it would negatively affect the local economy by £4.
Recommendations agreed were for staff's views on changes to be "demonstrably taken into account", for the financial impact of any scheme on the local economy to be "formally considered" and to seek the views of key sector employers in Plymouth.
The panel said service redesign should be considered as an alternative to altering pay and conditions, as well as improved management and productivity.
They also asked for an effective sickness strategy to be produced and that 100 per cent of staff appraisals should take place and for the trust to publish a response to its most recent staff survey. They also asked for the impact of on-going recruitment and staff retention to be considered.
Plymouth NHS must make cuts of £40 million over the next two years as savings of £20 billion are made nationally.
Comments
by Waltersmith
Thursday, September 27 2012, 9:17PM
“Interesting to see that the cottage hospitals are cutting beds because now they are in the private sector no-one will work for them due to poorer working conditions putting more pressure on derriford which has just cut lots of beds.
The joy of a coalition government.”
by Jannerbear
Thursday, September 27 2012, 4:13PM
“Comment doesnt seem to have appeared so will repeat
Heres some links about the consortium
http://tinyurl.com/8u7dxml
http://tinyurl.com/8aupo9r
some info for you, officially not being discussed as proposals/recommendations because there are none at the moment only discussion points and options for consideration. In fact apart from management speak and pre-scripted releases that all the trusts are involved get very little info at all is known by staff.
This info is in the public realm via Unison southwest and the Royal College of Nursing website"”
by Jannerbear
Thursday, September 27 2012, 4:09PM
“Links to the consortium
http://tinyurl.com/8u7dxml
http://tinyurl.com/8aupo9r
some info for you, officially not being discussed as proposals/recommendations because there are none at the moment only discussion points and options for consideration. In fact workers are being told very little only management speak and the same old scripted story that every trust involved seems to be getting
This info is in the public realm via Unison southwest and the Royal College of Nursing website"”
by Jannercide
Thursday, September 27 2012, 10:03AM
“Break it, then send in the private sector to fix it - that's generally the conservative plan with public services.”
by unhappysteveo
Thursday, September 27 2012, 6:37AM
“too true, i gave up on working for Derriford last year due to the stress, work load and under staffing. i was in a fairly low unqualified position. i'm now working in the private sector for a lot more money and far less stress.”