A handful of us from Southmead hospital and the BRI met and primarily talked about the various cuts due to the ‘financial crisis’ of the trust, the situation of outsourcing and how it affects us and the patients at work.

In terms of outsourcing there is the current disaster with the SVL patient transport bust, which affects various areas. We are in touch with ambulance colleagues, who reckon that Bristol Ambulances will hoover up the contract – working conditions there aren’t great.

We also have Lloyd’s pulling out of the contract for the outpatient pharmacy and asked ourselves what will happen to the pharmacy workers. The pharmacy not only provides medicine for outpatients, but also for oncology, so they have a substantial volume. Being taken back in-house might be the best option. In London various trusts have formed their own companies for outpatients pharmacies, which is problematic.

Like with SVL, the pharmacy workers will be fed up with having to work under yet another management, with yet another set of rules. There are currently struggles at Homerton hospital by outsourced workers to get taken back in-house – in these situations we, as workers, should not just wait, but say collectively what we want to happen.

Despite having cut incentives for NHS staff to work extra-shifts to address the long waiting list in theatres, there seem to be plans to outsource some of the plastics surgeries to a third party, who brings in their own staff. These are rumours and difficult to verify. It is just very contradictory that you cut the pay of ‘your own staff’ due to ‘financial crisis’, but then bring in outsourced staff (probably because the ‘third party provider’ pays well for the use of NHS theatres). The overtime rates, which are statutory according to the NHS Employers Handbook, are granted haphazardly, e.g. in theatres they used to be given, on wards they are hardly given, in the pharmacy they are still given.

Other outsourcing has happened on the old Frenchey site, where a private company keeps a department for brain injuries, the BIRU brain injury rehabilitation unit. NHS trainee staff are sent on placement there, as the private company has some links with UWE. The working conditions there are very ‘American’, it looks flashy, but actually the conditions for workers and patients are not great. The private company relies heavily on the NHS as they don’t have CT or MRI equipment. Workers there are mainly on visa and they are tied to the job for some years.

When it comes to the ‘financial crisis’ we have to say that it is a politically created crisis, both from the government, but also by upper management of the trusts – the governments decide what they spend their money on. They have billions for re-armament or questionable subsidies, meaning, to limit the expenses of a health trust is a question of political priority, not a natural fact. Upper management passes on the pressure from above, because they want to save their own jobs and influence. The median wage in the trusts is around 40k, the average wage even higher, but they save the money by cutting incentives for Band 2,3,4,5 workers, who make up the bulk of actual care staff, but earn much less than the median or average wage, more like 22k to 28k. This, as well, is a political decision. After the trusts have hired a fair amount of new nurses, the staffing issues have now reappeared on the wards.

We finally talked about the content of the next issue of Vital Signs, amongst others there will be an article on the ‘financial crisis’, an interview with a junior doctor and a cancer patient, a report about a self-organised struggle group of hospital workers in Germany, an article on the problems with Datix and a text about what we mean when we say that we have to struggle for a new society.

Our next public meeting will be on Friday, 27th of September / at 7pm / at The Base, 14 Robertson Road, Bristol, BS5 6JY

The more the merrier, everyone welcome!

In solidarity