‘Confusion’ as two Essex NHS trusts split over social enterprise
move
1st April 2010
The drive to hive off NHS services into a social enterprise in
parts of Essex has descended into chaos, Unite, the largest union
in the country, has said.
Unite said that ”confusion reigns – big time” after two NHS
trusts disagreed about hiving off their community services into a
social enterprise – an organisation one step removed from the
NHS.
Unite applauded the decision by NHS South East Essex to opt for
the integration of services with the local NHS and local
authorities, instead of a social enterprise.
But the union was critical of NHS Mid Essex’s decision to push
ahead with the social enterprise option, despite 78 per cent of
feedback forms showing that staff were against such a move.
The two trusts cover the Southend, Chelmsford, Witham, Maldon
and Braintree areas - with more than 700,000 people - and
originally wanted community services provided by health visitors,
nursery nurses, district nurses and school nurses moved to one new
social enterprise.
Unite regional officer, Ian Maidlow, said: ”Now that the two
trusts have opted to take different routes, you could say that
confusion reigns – big time. It is unclear what is going to happen
now as the boards of the two trusts fundamentally disagree about
the future of community services.
”Unite will be lobbying the East of England Strategic Health
Authority to knock heads together and halt NHS Mid Essex’s
misguided plans for a social enterprise. The present situation is a
recipe for chaos.”
Unite says the sense of confusion in Essex over social
enterprises is reinforced by the staff at NHS West Essex, which
covers Harlow, Bishop’s Stortford and Saffron Walden, recently
voting overwhelmingly against moving to a social enterprise.
Unite’s supports the Department of Health’s announcement last
autumn that the NHS should be ‘the preferred provider’ of choice.
This means that outside providers can only be asked to tender if a
trust is deemed to be failing and has not taken remedial
measures.
Social enterprises are commercial organisations, one step
removed from the NHS, that can win – and lose – contracts to
provide services to the NHS for a limited period of time.
If the social enterprise loses its contracts to, for example, a
north American private healthcare company in five years time, jobs
could be lost and services to the public could become fragmented.
The ethos of a NHS providing a unified, joined-up service for
patients could disappear.
Ian Maidlow said: ”It is evident that social enterprises are a
leap in the dark in terms of provision of services. The employment
conditions and pensions of NHS staff could also be severely eroded,
or even lost.“
ENDS
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