A handful of us who work at Southmead hospital and the BRI met up to talk about things at work and beyond.

Updates

There are no major developments in terms of outsourcing or ‘taking back in-house’ of the outpatient pharmacy at the BRI. People working there still feel in limbo.
The ‘financial crisis’ of the major trusts seems to be having repercussions for trainee nurses at UWE, where graduating nurses complain that it has become more difficult to find local jobs. Due to the cancellation of agency work some of our colleagues from Spain now work in smaller towns in Wales.

The collective discontent regarding the cut in overtime rates in theatres continues. Management has promised to respond by the end of the month. At the same time they are reluctant to reveal the company names of third-party providers who bring in their own nurses and HCAs at weekends in order to perform surgeries on NHS patients. It seems that one of the companies is KPI Health. We plan to look into this issue further to get a better sense of which firms are getting these contracts, how the funding is managed and what decision making process is behind them.

Report from the struggle at the Jewish Hospital in Berlin

Due to a health reform, hospitals are only compensated for the patient-facing work of HCAs if they have an official qualification. At the small Jewish Hospital in Berlin – which is run by a secular association, only “Jewish” in name – 80 HCAs, some of them having been working on wards for 30 odd years, were given redundancy letters in mid-September. This came without an offer to obtain the required qualification. The hospital management plan to out-source their work to a private third-party provider. A health worker from Bristol took part in a solidarity meeting by nurses, medical students and doctors from all major hospitals in Berlin and local social centres. During this assembly, workers and activists planned a protest rally in front of the Jewish Hospital in mid-October. It was good to see workers from all grades and hospitals (Vivantes, Charite) coming together. The collective contract at the major hospitals runs out in January 2025, so the mobilisation for industrial action might overlap with the protests against redundancies.

Darzi Report

A friend gave us a quick overview on the Darzi report about the situation of the NHS. The report provides some relevant data, e.g. about the increase in long-term health issues in the general population or the sickness absence levels in the NHS. The report primarily refers to ‘professional bodies’ as sources, but not NHS workers themselves. That might be a reason why pay and staffing levels are only mentioned very briefly. Allegedly staffing levels have increased, but at the same time nurses and other care workers might have to perform more job tasks that are not directly patient facing. Although there are no policy recommendations, the report can be read as a justification for the ‘semi-privatisation’ stance of the Labour government.

RCN vote

Unfortunately none of the colleagues present were RCN members, so we could only discuss the general effect of the RCN no-vote regarding the 5.5% pay award. It is unfortunate that the RCN in Scotland has accepted the award, while rejected in England. Around 145,000 members voted in England and 64% rejected the award – the total membership in the UK is around 450,000. The fact that only the RCN will be balloting for industrial action might mean that the talk about ‘nurses leaving the Agenda for Change’ reappears – which would create deeper divisions within the NHS workforce.

National rebel health workers meeting

We briefly talked about the idea to call for a meeting of fellow health workers from other areas in the UK early next year. At our next meeting we will discuss a draft invitation and agenda. It seems important to reflect on experiences and struggles beyond the Bristol boundaries.

Next issues of Vital Signs Magazine and the next public meeting

Issue no.2 is ready for lay-out and printing and should hopefully find its way onto wards and break rooms by the end of October. There are some draft articles for Issue no.3, e.g. an interview with US nurses and UK medical students, but any other ideas and contributions welcome.

We will meet again on Saturday, 26th of October, at ‘The Base’, 14 Robertson Road, Bristol, BS5 6JY