Hi all,
I work in clinical engineering for a trust who, in the current climate of cost-saving agendas and seemingly at the behest of NHS England are looking at moving their Estates and Facilities division (including Medical Equipment Management) into a Wholly Owned Subsidiary (WOS), meaning amongst other things that all staff in the 30 or so subdivisions of E&F will no longer be directly employed by the NHS.
As there is a national push for trusts to look at this as a cost-saving measure, I feel there may be many in the same boat now or very soon. Obviously there are some big disadvantages to loosing the rights and benefits of NHS employment, depending of course on the small-print of the terms under which the transfer is performed. There are some promises of like-for-like terms (under TUPE), supposedly including access to NHS pensions schemes, but I confess to scepticism about the longer term efficacy of such things, especially if management of subdivisions of E&F like EBME teams ends up bring subcontracted to a private company.
So, I came here to ask;
Do you work for an EBME dept that is already managed by a WOS? If so, do your employment terms match those of NHS staff, including AfC pay, pensions, leave, sick leave etc?
Is your trust considering this move, and if so do you feel you'll have opportunity to contribute to the decision?
Might there (whisper it...) be the potential for a co-ordinated response to speak with a united voice on the matter?
There are rules around staff engagement around the decision, but no promises that any weight would be given to staff opinions. Wherever they are asked, NHS staff overwhelmingly do not want to be moved out of NHS employment, but 70 or so of these WOS exist which suggests to me that staff in those were not able to effectively resist the move. Sadly, all this leaves me with big concerns around my future with (or without) the NHS.
