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

There is movement between the NHS and the private sector and like wise the other way. Alas the things they use to say about the NHS like job security, not voting with their feet, good pension, ect have gone out of the window.

And with a significant number of trusts in what's described as financially unviable situations I'm sure it's going to be interesting times ahead.

I can but revert to my default statement, then, Chris:- if the Trusts don't want their kit fixing, what are they going to do next?

1) Withdraw it from service?
2) Be ready to pay out more and more "compo" claims?

Get real. It's scaremongering, Mate. Of course the Trusts will retain in-house biomed services in some shape or form. And, whether it's through directly employed staff, or "outsourcing" ... well (again, as I keep saying), techs don't grow on trees (and neither is there a bottomless pit of good techs, either).

Ripe for ****** to go to the director of finance and say "We can do it for 10% cheaper than it currently costs you to manage equipment, give us the contract".
And he does so without knowing the fine detail of the current and offered service.
So you get TUPE across on the same pay and conditions - for a while and then things start to change.......
This is the real world.
Robert

****** insert name of one of many well known companies.

That sort of thing only works if the Director of Finance is a knob ... how can that be?

No Geoff, somebody else does it outside the Trust! For instance Linet popped into our Trust sometime ago and set up a contract without going through our department. (Now seems to be back in house as one of our guys fixed the bed my mum was in) Also some of our work was taken over by companies like Mediquip to name a few and Weston has been put out to tender! Then there's privatisation and less common nationalisation.

So there is work to be done, it might not be you doing it or you could be working for Virgin Health. Luckily so far we've just lost the c**p and gained more interesting work but it could have gone the other way.

Never heard of the first two you mention there, Chris ... but the third one sure sounds like a class act!

But I can't believe that no-one within the Trust(s) concerned signs off on such contracts ... else how do the "contractors" get paid?

Unless, of course, I'm misunderstanding the situations you're describing ... and they are actually Charity Organisations.

Which reminds me of something (else) that I once proposed (over twenty years ago now):- that the League of Friends take on some of the basic biomed stuff. You know, all the c**p that the regular guys never seem able to get around to doing.

Usually it goes to a new manager who doesn't know a service is already in place.

Apparently it's a common cause of fraud in the NHS as companies by pass departments and trusts end up with bills for employment services and so called free printing they never knew they ordered.

ps. Geoff since it's dealing with a troublesome patient I wouldn't wish them on the league of friends.

Is fraud still considered a crime in Bristol ... or would that be yet another case of "lessons shall be learned"?

Sounds like what we really need is a VRFD ... then perhaps incompetent and (or) corrupt Finance Directors et al can be "struck off".

You know, to "protect the patients"!

Meanwhile, perhaps I'll develop the League of Friends idea in a separate thread.

Yes it is Geoff. The issue is that any manager can authorise a service within the NHS, (actually they don't even have to use existing services within the Trust) thus you get managers taking on extra contracts without another departments knowledge and a separate issue of crooks who try to exploit the fact.

Could this be the website you need, Chris?