NHS are not giving my wife any uniform AIBU?

[filletofishmeal]

My wife started her job in March, and within the first week the uniform was ordered. She chased this up in May and was initially told that she did not order any, and then after my wife insisted she has the uniform lady admitted she ordered the wrong size. It is now June and she asked for an update today, and was told that it is not coming anytime soon.

We have collectively spent over £100 on uniform, and she needs to buy summer outfits for work ( which is part of her dress code and was ordered 3 months in advance). She says that there is no one to complain to as there is only 1 person in the department, so she can get away with not doing anything. She never picks up her phone and ignores people's messages, basically waiting for her pension to kick in !

AIBU for saying that the NHS should really give her the promised uniform, as I don't really fancy spending another £100 when it is down to their laziness.

Contact HR or the manager’s manager

HR are useless in itself. Took nearly 6 months for her recruitment process, as they used to purposely ignore emails and documents all week and conveniently respond at 4:30 on the Friday.

Issue is she needs the uniform clothes now and I don't think she wants to rock the boat too much with her manager's manager, as she has told her manager who is also unhappy but can't do too much.

Perhaps an informal enquiry to infection control in her workplace setting about what to expect and what to do to avoid placing patients at risk?

What job is she doing, is it direct patient care

I order clinical uniform.
Depending on the style, colour and size it can take months for uniform to arrive from suppliers.

It took over 6 months for uniform to arrive when I ordered it for my work place.
Made to order is 16weeks lead time from some suppliers and then 4 weeks for embroidery.
It isn't always possible to have every size and style in stock on site as it's expensive and takes up space.
Standard uniform might be quicker but not always.

Took 4 months for mine to arrive. Like pp said it's not just size, colour but embroidery on them that takes longer

The issue is that the person ordering it made a mistake on the original order form and did not bother letting my wife know, even though she already knew. This added 2-3 months onto the lead time.

Not direct care, but clinical and the clothes that we got her are ruined as they are solely used for work.

Mine took 4 months. I had to wear my student uniform in the meantime which wasn't great for professionalism. It's not good and it shouldn't happen, but it does, all over the NHS.

Can she just wear a plain t-shirt and trousers until it arrives? Not her fault her employer won't provide uniform. Even if that employer is the NHS they shouldn't be this rubbish that she is having to buy her own.

I don’t really understand what you’re hoping to get from this post apart from to whip up general ranting about the NHS.

This must be very frustrating for your wife, I’m sure she’s doing every thing she can to work through it. I’m not entirely sure why it’s such a big source of irritation for you?

She should be asking them to pay for her uniform needs in the interim since it was their mistake.

I think you can claim tax back on uniform expenses.. not great but better than nothing

Can she not wear scrubs while she waits?

That wouldn't have been an issue if it was ordered in March, but the person ordering made a mistake and didn't tell us. They only placed the order last week and so we have a 4 month wait from now. They are very unorganised ( writes down people's orders on the back of envelopes) and there's a mutual dislike for her across the hospital.

It's costing money. When it shouldn't be. I'd be pissed off.

I bought her some black trousers and white blouses, but she now needs summer clothes as it is too hot to wear the blouses.

What sort of summer clothes? Can she not sort this out for herself?

Uniform always takes ages (I'm not in nhs, but work were uniform is required for some staff). This is particularly bad right now, there is still supply chain backlog that hasn't cleared due to covid (it all pretty much comes from China, that has had rolling lockdowns for much monger than we did in the uk).

Some uniform we ordered pre covid still hasn't arrived (but we aren't a priority, whereas I imagine nhs is)

Primary tshirts?

Had a look into that, HMRC will most likely reject the claim as in theory she can wear these clothes in non work settings. Also , you only get 20% relief back so still down overall.

Primark t shirts even.

Why are “you” buying it for her. Can’t she buy her own clothes.

The average time for uniform to arrive in this hospital is 1-2 months, which is what has happened for colleagues who started same time as my wife.

Can she wear all cotton tops, what sort of uniform is it, is it just tops she needs which are usually very hot to wear.