Staff to ballot on industrial action to halt London hospital
pathology privatisation
1 September 2010
Plans to privatise one of the country’s leading pathology
services at London’s King’s College Hospital are being opposed by
Unite, the largest union in the country.
Unite will be balloting its members at the south east London
hospital on industrial action within the next fortnight, as it
fears that privatisation will break-up a 300-strong world class
department that has taken decades to build up and hit services to
patients.
The hospital’s directors are proposing to set up a private
sector company with the pathology services at St Thomas’ Hospital
and international services company, Serco.
This new company will be taking on services worth tens of
millions of pounds annually and employing nearly 1,000 staff.
Unite’s national officer for health, David Fleming, said: ”There
seems to be no rhyme or reason why a world-class pathology service
that carries out two million tests a year and has an excellent
reputation has to be hived off to the private sector.
”It smacks of the triumph of dogma over common sense, hence the
industrial action ballot.”
The aim is to have the new ‘company’ up-and-running by 1
October, but Unite, Unison and the Federation of Clinical
Scientists have written to the management asking for the plans to
be halted.
Unite national executive member, Frank Wood, who is a
bio-medical scientist, said: ”Pathology staff take years to train
and need constant development and training to keep pace with rapid
scientific changes.
”The private sector has made frequent attempts to run NHS
pathology services and has failed due to its inability to retain
and attract these type of staff, for example, at the Lister
Hospital, Stevenage and at Ealing where various private companies
have been used and have been found wanting.
”Diagnostic services of the standard based at King’s require
constant reinvestment to match and anticipate the pace of clinical
needs and research. To siphon off any portion of this for marketing
and profit will inevitably affect the quality of patient care.
”To neglect aspects of a particular speciality because it may
be, at the present, unprofitable or unmarketable is to risk
damaging the ability of the organisation to be flexible and
responsive to rapidly changing clinical needs.”
ENDS
Note to news editors:
Pathology is an international scientific service. King’s hopes
to be part of a world renowned Academic Health Science Centre.
Science relies upon information shared openly and constructively
allowing review by other peers and an intellectual openness.
This stands at odds with the secrecy and protectionism practiced
by the private sector whose involvement could drastically curtail
much of the hospital-based research in leading medical schools.
Almost every UK hospital, that runs 24 hour services, includes a
pathology laboratory service. When patients attend a clinic, visit
their GP or have to stay in hospital their doctor makes use of the
pathology service. Some 70 per cent of all clinical decision made
by doctors relies upon one or more tests provided by pathology
services.
Modern pathology laboratories can now include millions of pounds
worth of the most advanced equipment performing on an increasingly
automated basis thousands of tests each day.
Pathology staff include:
Support grades carrying out intensive and taxing duties
requiring concentration and attention. They are often low paid, but
are responsible for ensuring the delivery of essential work.
Biomedical scientists, who are qualified to degree standard and
beyond, carrying out specialist and often unique procedures
demanding a thorough understanding of their work and highly
developed manual skills.
Clinical scientists, who are qualified to doctorate level and
work directly with medical staff to develop the service, provide
essential advice and advance clinical care.
There are some 25,000 staff employed in pathology services in
the UK, with Unite representing the majority of this workforce.
For further information, please ring: Richard Munn, Unite
regional officer, 07739 078343 or David Fleming, national officer,
health, 07798 531 013 or Shaun Noble, communications officer
(health sector) 020 7420 8951 or 07768 693 940
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