In December 2024 there were a few local disputes going on within the NHS. Unfortunately we only know about them through the official media or official trade union announcements. It would be much better to have first-hand accounts from workers involved! How do they see the strikes, their strong points and their weak points? We would need these accounts to really learn from each other. At the BRI, for example, the future of outsourced work in the outpatients pharmacy is contested, while at Southmead there are arguments about outsourcing of theatres to third-party providers. We published a previous summary of local NHS disputes here…
Three weeks strike against outsourcing by porters, cleaners and housekeepers in Colchester
Cleaners, porters and housekeepers, as well as other facilities staff, who are employed at Colchester Hospital, Aldeburgh Hospital, Ipswich and other East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) went on strike at the end of November 2024. You can watch a longer interview with a porter here. Facilities at Ipswich Hospital are currently provided by private contractor OCS, but this contract ends in April next year and workers argue the trust should bring services back in-house. Outsourced staff in Ipswich get fewer days of annual leave, less sick pay, and also missed out on the extra one-off payment of £1,655 that NHS staff received in the last financial year. Health Secretary Streeting has said he will not intervene in the trust’s £100 million outsourcing bid despite Labour’s promise for the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation.
Health care support workers in Swansea Bay vote for strike
Staff at eight hospitals in the area, including Neath Port Talbot, Morriston and Singleton, are set to walk out on the 10th and 11th of December. This is another dispute about re-banding health care assistants who undertake ‘clinical tasks’ (medical observations etc.) to Band 3. We featured a conversation between HCAs about the issue here.
Strike of hospital porters and cleaners employed by ISS in South London
The workers are employed by private contractor ISS as domestics, porters and catering staff and will be taking four days of strike action in early December. In total 300 workers are involved. “The dispute centres around pay, terms and conditions.”
Manchester mental health workers on strike
Three Manchester Early Intervention Teams will be escalating their strike action. Current negotiations have so far yielded no offer to resolve this dispute by the employer, GMMH, to secure the recurrent funding for Safe Staffing and Safe Workloads. Despite workforce gaps identified by NHS England several years ago, Manchester ICB commissioners have failed to provide adequate funding. Meanwhile Manchester commissioners spend over £30 million on private sector out-of-area hospital beds for Manchester service users (for example in Norwich, Exeter, Plymouth etc). Severely unwell people are separated from their loved ones at a time of greatest distress.
