EBME Forums Forums Management Professional Issues Agenda For Change Changes to Agenda for Change

No doubt you could sketch out something perfectly adequate over your tea-break, Bill.

On a more serious note ... I have often wondered why groups of NHS biomed departments don't band together to form the United Biomedical Engineering Trust(s) ... or some other suitable name.

OK ... I know, that would be too logical. I'll get my coat.

Some places are.
Robert

Yeah, right.


Do they also provide engineering support and maintenance services to medical equipment users, then?

And are working well together in the UCLP

It is work in progress.
Some of the members are looking at a joined up equipment service.
Currently contracts are in process of being managed across the partnership (with cost savings). The big ones are already done saving £100Ks in total.
It is early days but it is heading in that direction.
Robert

Managed Equipment Services?

It's an interesting one, Robert ... but how about a new thread?

Meanwhile, what I was thinking about was more in the line of "shared biomed services out in the sticks". We know that biomed services are already shared across (certain) Trusts to some degree, but what I was thinking of was biomed groups forming their own Trusts. Geographic, regional, national ... whatever - and then becoming large enough to include a training centre as well ...

... also worth a new thread, perhaps (if anyone else is interested)?

I saw an article on this earlier on in the year, mainly about the merger of NHS Trusts in London, rather than the grand academic plan. It made me think that we (the NHS) could quite easily develop "super trusts" throughout the UK. It made me feel a bit nostalgic, didn't we have them decades ago? I think we called them Regional Health Authorities. What goes around comes around.

Once again, Bill, you're absolutely spot-on.

If you look back over the entire history of the NHS, it's been one continuous sorry tale of change after change. We can but wonder why the Senior Management can't just [censored] off out of the way, and leave folk alone to get on with the real work!

Meanwhile, I'm also wondering when the EUSSR is going to start meddling in all this. How about a Pan-European Health Service? Now that would be a gravy train! Remember, folks, where you heard it first!

The proposals make an important change to the pay progression process.

Currently at appraisal, an employee needs to demostrate that they are applying the skills and competencies required for the post. These proposals introduce the additional requirement that the employee must demostrate that they are also "applying the required levels of performance and delivery consistently".

This is essentially a move to performance related pay. You will be set targets/obectives that you will have to achieve during the year or you won't get your increment. (High bands 8c, 8d & 9 will never progress to their top two points - they will have to earn them, like a performance related bonus, each year.)

I think these proposals are appalling. If you also think they are appalling I suggest you kick up a fuss via your union. If you are not in a union I would recommend you join one. For the record, I am a workplace rep for Unite.


Martin Sandford

Hi Martin,

I was never a big fan of AfC in the first place. There is not enough grades and the diferentials are too big. The top of a Band 6 is £6000 less than a Band 7. There is no way that a Band 7 is worth that much more than a Band 6! The time to stand up and fight has gone, nobody listened back then and I doubt anyone will now. I don't think we'll get much sympathy from outside of the public services the government has labelled us as pariahs, leeches & in the eyes of the public we are tarred with the same brush as benefit cheats!
Most people don't understand why we have all of these pay points within each grade So convincing people that we should get an increment just for turning up will be very hard to do. The thing we neeed to work on is making sure that the rules for incemental progress are fair and achievable. We will have to insist that every job within the NHS is appraised and every pay point has an agreed definition of what is required to progress. This will take about 20 years to complete, hopefully they will give up long before then.