EBME Forums Forums Free discussion Free discussion Current Vacancies - Are You Having A Laugh?

You can rest assured that things happen a little quicker than that on the Dark Side, Robert.

You would have no problem with keeping track of the comings and goings there, believe me.

At the end of the day pay peanuts get monkeys or cowboys. There is too much of this defeatism within our trade, they are paying for your knowledge. How many times do you go into a ward that is flapping and you sort it in 2 seconds. Alot of the time it is fixed over the phone.
They are getting you for cheap, have you had a look at contract prices on some gear. You provide a near instant service. We would rather have a machine that is fully functioning that we have taken our time on than this get it sent away attitude as it is taking too long. When it returns you have to test it anyway so how has that saved anytime or resources, false economy if you ask me.

Real cowboys don't chew on peanuts, Billy!

Why do some constantly snipe about NHS employee’s terms and conditions?

There appears to be some polarized critism of NHS employees on this forum.

For what it’s worth, this is my take on the situation, I have worked in the Private Sector (large, medium and small firms), Self Employed, Public Sector, Contractors and two brief periods of unemployment due to redundancy (remember Mrs. M Thatcher).

Each form of employment has good and not so good elements. Some may choice erroneously to paint the Public Sector as being cushy, bitterly citing advantages but there are many advantages in other forms of employment. When I worked for myself there were tax advantages, when I worked for agency contractors I enjoyed high pay and flexibility, when I worked in the Private sector there were bonuses and lucrative share save schemes; each form of employment provides plus and minus points. Even my two brief periods of unemployment were positive, I enjoyed the rest.

So don’t be fooled by the polarized spin, the job of an NHS EBME technician deserves good pay and a decent pension, after all you are paying 6% into the scheme.

As for a descent wage, many technicians’ posts are graded as Band 5; with a salary range of just above £21,100 to start and (after too many increments) finish around £27,500.

What sort of employer expects to attract qualified engineering technicians on £21k?

I've worked for both sides so know the dis/advantages to both.

You're never likely to get sacked working for the NHS unless you mess up big time no matter how 'good' you are at your job.
There are little time constraints on tasks and even if there is see point 1.
You get regular working hours unless you are on call and even then there is usually some kind of compensation .
There is nearly always someone next to you or near by to ask advice from or to lend a hand.
The pension scheme is fantastic compared to the private sector.
You get a shed load of holidays (and get to use them).
As long as you are not at the top of the band, you get regular, decent pay increments.
The only clear disadvantage was that once you reach the top of your banding it's then a case of dead mens shoes to progress.

Now if I have to travel to a job on Monday morning from the NW to say Cardiff and have to be there when then tech's arrive @ 8am I have two options a) travel on Sunday and stay in an hotel overnight thus wasting 5hrs+ of MY time (which I don't get back) b) travel on Monday morning and set off at ridiculous o'clock to get there at 8am.
Your working day may finish at 5pm and then you might have 5mins to an hours travel time home - I might be lucky and finish at 5pm but then I might have 5 hours to drive home and then have to do all my paperwork/emails/replications ready for the next day.

So yes I do get paid considerably more and have a nice car (but get taxed on it don't forget) - that's why I left the NHS, and yes, I do get on-call days but it's not a day off - you have to be available to go at the drop of a hat, but where you guys might work a 38 hours week for 5 days, I might have to do a 7-day week of 10+ hour days (and not be paid any overtime - 'just get it done'). Contract prices aren't just made up of my time on site - there are hotels, wages, fuel, parts, profit etc are all to go in there and how do we know how often we are going to be called out, I might do all that travelling etc just to change a light bulb if the hospital has a 'it's on contract - call 'em out' mentality.

I thought I was fairly paid when I worked in the NHS, definitely not underpaid but the grass always looks greener on the other side (from both side of the fence I may add) and for me the regular hours is what I absolutely miss the most.

Uh, well I do, but only because they still have a decent online presence. I don't particularly enjoy their fairy story take on the public sector (if it's really so brilliant, why do we have trouble recruiting people?).

As to the point of job security; a former colleague of mine was recently told that funding for her post was to be withdrawn. Doesn't sound all that secure. Fortunately, she got a job elsewhere before the money ran out.

Flexible working practices? Is that when one is sent to another hospital to help clear their backlog?

No, not really. What I meant by "flexible working practices" was being able (in most cases) to work the hours suited to the individual, plus "time off in-lieu", opportunities for training, CPD ... and all the rest.

Anyway ... what's wrong with lending a hand at another hospital, just as long as it's part of the National Health Service?

I should imagine that you may have a problem recruiting people mainly because (as I keep saying) there just aren't that many techs available. Certainly amongst the young. For instance, where would they come from these days (where would they have been trained)? It is not just the NHS that faces this problem.

Please don't tell me your a Daily Mail reader Geoff.

I'm surprised reading it doesn't exclude you from the EBME field, I mean visit a mental health unit to fix something and they'd rush for the ECT

The Daily Mail is probably a reason people bash the NHS, that paper rots your brain hope you don't get your facts from there

Sorry to disappoint Chris, but I wouldn’t class myself as a Daily Mail reader. In fact I don’t take any newspaper(s) at all. Neither do I watch TV. When I feel the need to find out what’s going on, I generally check-out various sites on the web. I could suggest a few if you like.

The reason I mentioned it earlier was by way of recommendation to our friends, the scare mongers.

But don’t tell me that you’re a Guardian reader, Chris (one of the liberal intelligentsia)?

Don’t worry, I am already excluded from the "EBME field". If indeed there is such a thing, it would only be found within the NHS, I would have thought.

Meanwhile, I like to think that I take issues on merit. That is, I'm usually able to make up my own mind, without having to resort to ECT (something that I know a bit about, by the way).

You don't need to look very far for reasons why people bash the NHS. I assume that you all do try and keep up with current events, regardless of which newspaper you have the time to read.

Also sorry to disappoint you Geoff, but if you put something like Daily Mail and a negative word into Google it's hard to find the webpage your searching for without having to sift through the whole of the Daily Mail's previous news stories. The Guardian article was the only other result on the page.