My wife who has worked for the NHS for a very long time, got as far up her pays ale as she could without going to Uni to retrain

As some on here already know the had a pay scale change and lots dropped down a band, but they had the higher band secured till 01/2016 iirc, so say if they was a band 5 for augments sake hey drop down to band 4 but receive the extra wage as a secured top up

My wife found out that there has been a policy change in 12/2013, unbeknown to her, her manager or anyone else she has spoken to apart from payroll when she questioned her pay

So now she doesn't qualify for her salary security due to been on long term sick (2 months) , so she only worth paying the higher band IF she's working.

How can they get away with a major policy change without informing their staff

disgusting how they treat their staff at the NHS Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

Unfortunately, it has become patently obvious that the NHS of today exists only to serve itself and the senior 'managers' that work within it, rather than the emphasis being on patient care.

Whilst I don't doubt your wife's hard work and commitment to the cause over the years, the previous scumbag administration flooded management positions within the NHS with the same greedy self-serving sorts that were running the country. The nett results are obvious; patients are left in corridors to die, dedicated nurses/physio's/surgeons etc are sidelined and taken for granted, and replaced by imports of dubious nationality, whilst the fat-cat management get fatter and fatter. It's nothing short of scandalous, and fairly evident that our once-heralded as the best in the world NHS is simply not fit for purpose in its current guise. Foraging near Gaydon....
——————————————
MY13 HSE Lux SD4, Baltic Blue - current, 30,000> miles without fault
MY12 HSE 2.2 SD4, Sumatra Black - gone after 10 months/43,000 fault-free miles

"How can they get away with a major policy change without informing their staff "

Easy Mr Pinks.

A dear friend of mine is a very senior manager in the NHS in London. After leaving university in the 70's with an excellent sciences degree she tried various jobs in industry and bio-sciences but none pleased. She then found her vocation in life in the NHS in nursing rising to "Ward Sister". Then 20yrs ago she moved into management to avoid unsocial hours working having started a family.

In the last twenty years she has again risen up the racks and has witnessed the slow suffocation of the moral values that were a fundamental part of the NHS when she joined. Indeed it was these values of equality of patient care combine with a high ethical management regime that attracted her to be part of "the service". However, she has witnessed that those founding NHS qualities that she so admired have been consistently eroded during her tenure - not by budget restrictions or government funding, but by the manner in which successive governments both Labour and Conservative have dictated NHS funds. The matter has unfortunately become critical during this last parliament under the Conservative coalition.

She reports a substantial proportion of the NHS overall budget is now spent on outside international management consulting organisations whose sole remit is to create a rationale for privatising any if not all elements of the NHS. Hundreds of millions of £ are being spent on these folks for their recommendations and implementations. To the extent that even whole hospital units are now in the hands of private management health care organisations, and yet, when patient care goes wrong in these hospitals the NHS is publicly blamed (not the private owners) for poor patient management.

As part of that creeping privatisation of the NHS the salary scales have been "redesigned" by these consultants and naturally they charge a fee for their cost saving exercises. Who funds their fees - the NHS staff by method of salary scale readjustments and penalty clauses.

How does my friend know all of this and has access to all these details. Simple. As an NHS district manager she is in control of a complete NHS London district and as such she has to liaise with her political masters, the external private consultancies and facilitate a bridge between them and the internal structure of the NHS.

So your target is the wrong one Mr. Pinks. Your wife's real enemy (those that have cut her salary) is the current Cabinet and its privatisation policy towards the NHS led by Mr Cameron. The NHS "safe in their hands" - in real speak that translates as "safeguarding my annual share holding dividends" in those private corporations

The NHS should never be a political football - patient care is not a game.

That is very much a load of waffle, the NHS has been graduating towards supplying services via private companies for a few decades, the NHS became unwieldy with the ancillary staff becoming far too expensive, to the point cleaners were on a par with the nurses in pay and it became a union fight to see who could pressurize the government into acceding to their wants. The intention of the NHS was and is that it is free at the point of contact, obviously it is not free, someone has to pay. The payers are you and I via taxes and NI, and the diverting of general taxation (VAT, corporation, and fuel tax) The object is to provide the best service via the cheapest channels, whether that is private or government direct control via the individual heath authorities, some of which seem to be self propagating in jobs for the boys filling in forms proving their fantastic capability for justifying their existence with or without any concern as to patient care. When one sees the cost of food in hospitals compared to its value and nutrition, one realizes that this attitude would also abound in other departments my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.

Waffle Dartman
I know the content of my post does not contain a single gram of culinary confection.
You therefore are directing your content at another's ingredients.
Or, tragically by mistake you have swallowed far too much Daily Mail syrup with some of the digested grains of truth.

Seeing as I don't take any UK papers or read them, I am unable to swallow or even digest any part of the Daily Mail, but there again I am highly unlikely to accept the ramblings of an expat who probably only pops back to take advantage of their previous contributions. Too many outgoings and freebies doesn't help balance the books, or the long term leases of the public partnership of the wonderful peoples government that cost me a fortune. my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.

can of worms comes to mind with those replies

 Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

npinks wrote:

can of worms comes to mind with those replies

Dartman
I do not "pop back to take advantage of previous contributions" - I have no need to despite the cost of the extensive treatments I have undergone in the last two years (and which unfortunately are ongoing) as my dear lady is a Doctor.

And, your politically biased references to the "people's government" conveniently ignore the fact that the democratic parliamentary system enjoyed in the UK ensure that every administration elected under that process is as a result, regardless of political colour, a de facto "people's government". Furthermore, whatever or from wherever you base your comments re the state of the NHS they are clearly not objective or without political bias - rather - they are founded on your freely admitted political persuasion.

There have been a compendium of independent reports re the "fit-for-purpose" on the NHS over the last 20yrs and within them all are two consistent themes: a) in that it is still the world's finest "free at the point of contact" socially provided state health provider, and b) that the percentage of the NHS's total budget allocated to the provision of private services both clinical and none clinical despite substantial increases has not yielded a commensurate benefit in efficiency or effectiveness. These are not my words or conclusions but those of respected Think Tanks like the world renowned Kings Trust in London and the W.H.O. in Geneva. These are just two of the many.

My original post was a direct reply to the OP who raised an important issue relating to employment contracts in today's NHS and my response, simply and in some depth, exposed why his wife found herself in a unfavourable position. It was not politically biased and it made clear that successive administrations of both blue and red of the "people's government" have politically spent/allocated far too much of the NHS budget unwisely and consistently without a favourable outcome to the service and its patients.

Badger
My "knowing someone very senior" in the NHS does not automatically make me right, or indeed wrong. It is that person with decades of service working from the ground up to the top tier and their daily contact with all parties external and internal, private and public bodies that gives them the knowledge base that you do not possess.

I have established the facts via expert reference points, and it's all available to you via open sourced reference material if you care to spend the time to do some proper research instead of furiously flying your political bias in pursuit of obsessive rants at any comment accessed by you to be left of centre. It is you who "shoots off his mouth" - from whatever point on the global compass you choose.

Don't you ever tire of your own rhetoric? Foraging near Gaydon....
——————————————
MY13 HSE Lux SD4, Baltic Blue - current, 30,000> miles without fault
MY12 HSE 2.2 SD4, Sumatra Black - gone after 10 months/43,000 fault-free miles

No one disputes that governments of all persuasions have spent money unwisely, but whilst those on the red side of the political arena continue to use the NHS as a political football when they are in opposition, then fail miserably when in power. The NHS is far too large to be managed by a centralised government and hand picked political management. There is no reason why it could not be extremely efficient and still be free at the point of contact and run by a PLC. The problem with PLC contracts is that the PLC should not charge more for the services of their staff than the present system, then employ those persons under a temporary contract with lower skills and give them grand titles and fail miserably in their execution of duties. A properly controlled contract with the correct supervision could and should produce an excellent service, if it doesn't then those writing and awarding the contract should take the responsibility. Responsibility seems to be something lacking today, both amongst politicians and staff, and neither does it seem that dismissal is a fair punishment for failure, rather a quick visit to a sympathetic tribunal and a nice cash payout.The "peoples government" was a quote from "call me Tony " the politician who conned a country for 15 years, and they still supported him when he stated he would step down before the end of the term he was still on the campaign trail for. With his ego, the fact that he would not try to beat Maggies tenure indicated the wheels were definitely wobbly on the trolley. Basically the British people deserve what they get, and you're probably best out of it.  my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.

the last time i discussed working conditions at the NHS, when discussing the pay band dropping, the NHS dropped the nursery nurses to band 3 (top level in band 3) and now only employ assistants, who always turn out to be foreign, speak with each other in their own language and don't interact with anyone else as that is harder to do in pigeon English, makes your working environment a great place to work in

all because they are under pressure to penny pinch, unfortunately it what she knows and she see's herself a too long in the teeth to retrain or branch out in to other fields, but if things don't improve she might just have too, if she gets back to work.

at least yesterdays hospital appointment, ruled out ME/CFS so she will get better, in time.......... Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

So true nPinks.

Dartman I empathise with most that you have said in your latest post until the beginning of the sentence "the people's government". Not that I agree or disagree with what you write thereafter - just simply - as I said in my original post: "health care should not be a political football". Red and Blue have failed the NHS miserably.

Badger - you are simply beyond reproach.

If a privately owned NHS is going to be so much better for patients and still "free" at the point of use, I wonder if anyone can point to a country where such a liberated system does just that?!


Of course PLCs should be fully accountable;but I'm having trouble remembering many that have been successfully brought to task for failing! Life is not a dress rehearsal!