Are NHS redundancies on the way?

[tvod2244]

I keep hearing the government say "tough decisions are coming" and "public spending cuts" and I've started worrying that I could lose my job :(

I have been in the NHS for 6 years (non-clinical) and couldn't imagine doing anything else. I love my job. I know nothing has been defined in terms of what J.Hunt means by cuts but if anyone is able to offer any thoughts/reassurance it would be much appreciated xx

So do you think that trusts just don't need comms depts, or that clinicians should being doing comms work in their speared time?

I don't understand how people don't understand that the NHS is a huge business that needs be run as such with the right staff and expertise. It's not just doctors and nurses.

I hope not for your sake but sadly redundancies have been a fact of life for a lot of us for a long time. I’ve been made redundant 3 times in my career so far.

then, they freeze recruitment only to find out that those non-clinical roles are, in the main, required so that clinical staff can spend time on clinical work rather than doing administrative task which still need to be done. Would we rather have clinical staff seeing patients or spend their time doing recruitment admin, printing and posting letters, processing referrals, collecting the endless amount of data that has to be produced?

This^
For everyone sitting on nhs waiting list, who do you think manages that waiting list, organises the clinics and sends out your appointment? Without all that the clinical staff would be sat waiting at clinic and no-one would turn up and patients would still be on waiting list.

I see a combination of much waste and mismanagement. And not a great deal of overwork. Incompetence yes.

Oh please. One experience in one department and you can make such a sweeping statement. I work in mental health, we are on our knees and being cut left right and centre. It was bad before Covid, it is worse all the time and staff are burning out left and right because they are being asked to work beyond capacity constantly. But hey, dont let that interfere with your prejudice because of something you saw once.

@RosesAndHellebores I think your care would be a lot more joined up with more 'managers' not fewer.

@UniversalTruth please tell me why highly trained post graduate nurses need more managers in order to read my notes and accurately record in them. A post graduate masters qual is Level 7; are you seriously telling me a Level 7 professional needs a manager with a PhD to tell them what to do? Serious question.

Lol. Half the Trusts are still on Windows XP. You underestimate the shitness of most of the NHS’ ICT functions. They can’t even get a system in place to share basic details within Trusts. Fax machines are still used. Automation is eons away.

@RosesAndHellebores obviously I don't have all the detail, but from your report it seemed that the nurses you spoke to didn't have all the info in front of them. Non clinical support helps this not to happen.

Someone created a telephone appointment that you didn't need - a better skill mix of clinical and book clinical might have meant this didn't happen.

I'm sorry you feel upset about it, care is only going to get more disjointed as pressure is put on the NHS system.

*clinical and non clinical

@UniversalTruth where did I say I had ever had a telephone appointment?

I had an appointment for an infusion, even the best teams software in the world can't manage that. Subsequently I saw my consultant who due to deterioration in my condition changed the treatment from an infusion to daily injections.

I cancelled the appointment by phone and in writing so somebody else could have the appointment. The change in treatment should be on my electronic notes. The nurses should read them.before calling. They don't. At the very least nurse one should have cancelled the appointment in the system to prevent nurse two from calling. Nurse two had no reason to phone me and slowly explain as though I were a dimwit that if I were having daily injections, I couldn't have the infusion as well.

The whole thing is a time wasting, jobsworthy farce and it happens nine times out of ten. If nurses are post graduate qualified surely they can quickly swim the paperwork before them. They waste their own, and more importantly, my time. I'm not sure what difference a middle manager or three could make if that is the modus operandi of those who are supposed to be highly skilled and post graduate qualified. That's what the commentators and MNet tell me.

@RosesAndHellebores I was referring to the times the nurses called you, appointment was probably the wrong word.

I was giving my opinion as someone who works in the NHS: the best skill mix involves clinical and non clinical but seeing as we've got massive numbers of vacancies across the board all whilst trying to catch up from the pandemic, the point isn't relevant anyway.

If we want the same level of care we're used to, we need to pay more for it.

Shocking scaremongering comments on here from posters that have likely never been anywhere near a 'back office' in a hospital or anywhere close.

@UniversalTruth but I haven't had anything much better for the last 40 years. Including the period 1997 to 2010.
Much ofnit is about communication and communicating to patients clearly. I expect that as a bare minimum. It costs nothing and shoukd be within the competency of level 7 post grad nurse.

This.

I work for a well known government dept. (like, but not, the police). The general public don't seem to have ANY comprehension of how the department would work with the back room staff. So you say 'police' people think policemen. They don't think of all the admin that goes on behind the scenes to actually enable the policemen to do their jobs! Say NHS people think doctors and nurses, not admin. Same with my role.

Cutting staff will impact any service- in some cases more that cutting the front line staff. (Also with my role) I work bloody hard for a crap salary and get no thanks, in fact no acknowledgement that I actually exist!

I quite agree. And quite obvious too with their lack of understanding about how things actually work and the banding used in the NHS.

I cannot imagine this is true.

Our Trust is already haemorrhaging nurses, HCAs and booking office staff. We are low on receptionist too. The only department’s job that I can see being in peril is medical records staff due to our organisation going paperless but even that is a slow painful process (we started about a year ago and only 10% of clinics/departments are completely paperless).

I’m not so sure about middle management types however!

For NHS England, Health Education and NHS Digital, it is very much true.

30-40% redundancies next year after we merge.