Unison and Unite slam decision by North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust to outsource 70 jobs at Stamford and Rutland, Peterborough City and Hinchingbrooke hospitals

Around 70 NHS staff working across three hospitals in the area have been told their jobs will be outsourced to a private company.

The move affects employees in ‘soft facilities management’, including caterers, cleaners and porters, at Stamford and Rutland, Peterborough City and Hinchingbrooke hospitals.

Outside companies are now being asked to tender for the contracts, which also includes the cleaning contract for the Robert Horrell Macmillan Centre and off-site health records facilities for Peterborough City Hospital.

The trust that runs the sites, North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust (NWAFT), stressed the decision to outsource was based on achieving best value for money for taxpayers.

But it has been met with anger by workers’ unions Unison and Unite, which said “pandemic heroes” were now being “sold out of the NHS”.

They say staff will suffer as they will no longer be entitled to NHS pay and conditions. And they also warn patients “will likely experience deteriorating standards as a new private employer looks to save money and squeeze a profit out of the contract”.

Plans for the trust’s award-winning catering team would be particularly harmful, the unions say, as a new firm would bring in pre-cooked food at Hinchingbrooke rather than preparing it on-site.

The unions claim the trust wants the 70-plus staff to join more than 100 other cleaning, portering and retail staff currently employed by three other outsourcers, bringing them under a single private employer.

Unison’s eastern regional organiser, Cheryl Godber, said: “It’s taken an army of health workers to battle Covid-19 — not only doctors and nurses taking on the disease, but cleaners stopping the spread of infection, caterers providing staff and patients with the strength to carry on, logistics staff keeping everything moving and countless others.

“But the claps have turned into a slap in the face for these health heroes, as trust bosses are plotting to throw them out of the NHS team and onto worse pay and conditions.

“And it’s not just staff who will suffer — outsourcing means lower standards of hygiene, worse food and poorer levels of service. The trust should drop this half-baked privatisation plan and bring its workers back in house.”

NWAFT originally started the outsourcing process in March but paused because of the pandemic at the unions’ insistence, Unison and Unite say.

Companies are now being invited to put in tenders for the contracts by September 18 but unions say staff are being kept in the dark about plans for their jobs.

The trust has confirmed the tender process will also include grounds, gardens and pest control services, which will provide services to each of the three main hospital sites.

Unite regional officer Adam Oakes said: “Outsourcing NHS staff to private providers at a time when the NHS is stretched fighting a national health pandemic is completely unacceptable it will detrimentally affect patient care as well as cutting the pay and conditions of vital hardworking front line staff.

“Unions are opposed to the outsourcing of NHS services to private companies as they care more about profit than patient care. Unite urges NWAFT to reconsider this decision and to work with the unions to bring those services that are already outsourced back in house, under one employer: the NHS.”

Graham Wilde, chief operating officer at NWAFT, stressed the decision to tender some of the trust’s services was made “to ensure that we are providing the best value for money for taxpayers while maintaining the high quality services that we and our patients expect”.

He added: “We are working closely with approximately 70 trust staff affected by this process and the existing providers and we will be holding regular staff briefing sessions to keep them updated.

“We are also meeting regularly with representatives from Unite and Unison to discuss any concerns they may have and to ensure that they are aware of the timetable and approach being taken.”