Question mark over future NHS services for the young and old in
Bedfordshire
9th July 2009
NHS services for children and older people in Bedfordshire face
being hived off into a ‘social enterprise’, Unite, the largest
union in the country, has warned.
Plans to be outlined to staff on Wednesday, 15 July could see
1,100 staff - and services for more than 100,000 children and
420,000 older people - coming under the ‘social enterprise’ banner,
which is one-step removed from the NHS.
Chief operating officer of Bedfordshire Community Health
Services (BCHS), Andrew Harrington, in his letter to staff, admits:
"Social enterprises are businesses. They need to make a profit to
compete in the market.’"
Mr Harrington also concedes that staff have expressed ‘a strong
desire’ to maintain what is best within the existing BCHS and
‘strong support to retain NHS values and brand’.
Unite’s lead officer for health in the eastern of England
region, Owen Granfield said: ‘There is a large question mark over
social enterprises which are part of the giant experiment in an
expensive untested system of funding healthcare that must be
stopped. The people of Bedfordshire need to know what is being done
to the NHS in their name."
Unite is strongly opposed to the marketisation of the NHS, as it
puts private profit before patient care; undermines the ethos of
the NHS as a unitary service; and is detrimental to staff and their
employment conditions, as social enterprises have to compete
commercially for NHS contracts.
Owen Granfield continued: "Unite is asking Mr Harrington why he
is pushing ahead with these dogma-driven proposals, when his own
staff appear to have expressed a strong attachment to the NHS and
its values – as have the general public in repeated opinion
polls.
"Staff prefer to stay as employees within the NHS, rather than
see the fragmentation and privatisation of core NHS services. They
do not feel that profit should be the driver in a caring
relationship.
"We also want to know why staff are being misled about their
pensions – should existing staff no longer be employed by this
social enterprise, the final value of their pension could be
compromised. And new staff would not be eligible to join the NHS
pension scheme."
Unite is urging the public to protest when NHS Befordshire meets
to discuss the ‘expression of interest’ from BCHS – the first stage
in creating a social enterprise, which could include services for
children and young people; ‘end of life’; long term conditions; and
rehab and support.
ENDS
Those interested in joining the campaign please contact
Owen Granfield at Unite’s Luton office; 10 Cardiff Road,
Luton, Bedfordshire LU1 1PP, tel: 01582 726 122;
fax: 01582 454 320
For further information, please ring: Owen Granfield on 07768
693942
