How many people get their home telephone line rental paid when they are on-call? This morning all staff who have previously had this paid have received letters telling them this will no longer be paid. The letter claims this has been agreed with the Unions following full consultation. (Our Union rep has not even heard a rumour about this!) It seems and there is no entitlement under AfC terms and conditions. This organisation certainly knows how to loose goodwill.
Graham

I thought it was more normal now for hospitals to issue mobile phones for on-call techs.

Hi Graham,
We too have fallen victim to the withdrawl of telephone rental reimbursement for on-call staff.
However i must confess that i was party to this move in my Directorate BEFORE the trust wide notification.(similar to what you quote).

The reason behind this was to try to reduce costs within the department and across the organisation as a whole. It may sound mean and a bit small mined given the costs involved but we have 8 staff on-call and the option of the a number of mobiles to go round was better, even given the perceived restrictions.
So you are not alone !

Steve

Hi Guys,

Our hospital took a very reasonable response on this some years ago. Based upon European Law issues, the Trust stated that they interpret issues around 'Infringing on your human rights'to include calling you at home.
They therefore took the stance, 'If we pay your telephone rental and vat on it - can we call you at home?

Yes please and so we allow them to infringe on our human rights i.e.,not to have our employer bother our private lives when out of work time.

Be on-call, but how will they call you, they will have to pay for, mobile phone or your home rental, etc. If they page you, they will have to pay for your return call, etc.

Be hard and be harsh, don't go soft.

Jimbo

When on call here we get handed a mobile phone.
I have enough with tele-sales phoning me at home, I wouldnt want work calling me!

We have a mixed bag. We have several areas where we provide an On-Call service, so have several technicians from these areas On-Call at any one time.

Some areas pressed for the provision of a mobile phone years ago when they were quite an expensive commodity, as they wanted the freedom to go out wherever and whenever they wished (within reason).

Other technicians stuck with being paid line rental.

Now, the technicians who have a mobile phone would prefer the line rental, but have been told that as they have accepted a mobile phone that they cannot go back to having line rental instead. The Trust is now applying pressure for the issue of mobile phones to the other On-Call areas.

The "duty" mobile phone is the answer here, obviously. Why would the techs prefer the line rental, BSM?

We still get our telephone rental paid although there have been some proposals in the past to do away with it, but so far these have fallen by the way side. We have always objected to mobile phones as there are a number of dead areas locally and on health grounds ( who wants yet another device irradiating your body!)

Geoff,

Some of our technicians prefer the line rental beacuse they believe that it is worth more than being given another mobile phone to carry around. Some (albeit a small percentage) have refused on health grounds similar to those mentioned by yraG.

... worth more to them, do you mean?

And I just refuse to believe that any biomed seriously objects to carrying an on-call mobile phone on "health grounds"! What about the myriad of risks to health encountered everyday just by being in the hospital, and working on the kit? What's more important, being available on-call, or some imagined risk? And don't we manage risks these days, anyway?

yraG of Margate's point about communications dead zones is valid, but we are, after all, technical people, and radio pagers (etc.) have been about for a long time. Dare I mention Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and all the rest? Such problems can be overcome (as long as the will to do so is there).

Am I being too harsh if I suggest that the real issue could be that some people don't want to provide an on-call service at all? Perhaps some people don't really want to be biomeds either (and yes, I have met a few).

Bottom line is, if you're taking the money, then you do the job. Yes, "Lead, follow, or get out of the way". Biomed is not your typical (ie, mundane) 9-to-5 job, never was and never will be (I hope). Here endeth the lesson.

Get real guys!