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Another attack on the NHS - Enough to send a shiver down my spine
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Another attack on the NHS - Enough to send a shiver down my spine
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I found this article on the BBC news website today. " Business organisation the Institute of Directors (IoD) has called for collective bargaining to be scrapped for teachers and NHS staff ." The artic
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Forums  »  Off duty  »  News & media  »  Another attack on the NHS - Enough to send a shiver down my spine

Another attack on the NHS - Enough to send a shiver down my spine

posted at 7/2/2011 1:35 PM GMT on bmj.com
DrS
Posts: 1175
First: 25/1/2009
Last: 16/5/2012
I found this article on the BBC news website today.

"Business organisation the Institute of Directors (IoD) has called for collective bargaining to be scrapped for teachers and NHS staff."

The article goes on to state certain points which make me somewhat concerned...

  • "The paper suggests the government should drop plans to abolish the default retirement age, asking "Why does the government want to make it harder to remove staff who are no longer effective?"."    I appreciate that not every person nearing retirement is the best member of staff, but they have a lot to contribute, and forcing retirements makes these people start to claim from the state earlier, when they may still have a useful contribution to make. Not replacing those staff who are retiring is also a rather easy way for the government to make staff cuts without paying redundancy money

  • "Collective pay bargaining in the NHS and education sector should also be ended to boost productivity, the IoD has said."  Does this mean the end of the BMA negociating our contracts? As far as I understand the BMA are already having to fight tooth and nail to prevent our pay freeze. Taking away their power to negociate for us removes the voice we do have. We are already at a disadvantage in that as doctors we are not allowed to go on strike like the civil servants, fire fighters and airline crews of this world

  • "And in addition to abolishing the right to request flexible working it has proposed scrapping the right to request time off for training - both of which it claims creates red tape for firms."  Is this the end for study leave? Junior doctors already have to fund a certain element of their training (membership of royal colleges is compulsary once in training programmes) and have to do a considerable amount of work towards their training in their own time (e.g. exam revision, portfolio work)
At the moment these are recommendations, but the Government will consider them, as the IoD have claimed they will be "free to implement" and will "save money" helping the goverment cost cutting drive.
  • How would these changes affect our NHS ?
  • Should we actively speak out against them ?
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