NHS Trust merger. Has anybody stayed in a merged Trust, and were there many changes to your job eg relocation?

[WanderingJules]

I work for an NHS Trust which consists of 4 hospitals.
The hospital I work in is merging with another Trust to create a new one.
The new Trust will include our hospital and 2 others on the other side of town.
This merger is taking place within 12-18 months from now, so time is ticking by.
The hospital I currently work at is the furthest from home as it is, but I’m worried I’ll be required to work at the other 2 hospitals as they are too far away. I’m not the most confident driver, plus I work 30 hours a week on a Band 2 wage, so my wage will be eaten up in diesel.
I want to ask if anybody has been able to remain in the same hospital under a new Trust and been able to stay in the same dept etc?
Many thanks in advance for any advice 💐

I stayed under a merger and actually nothing changed for me except my email address!

In my board if you are required to move (not if you apply for a job at a different location or are always split site) you can have the difference in travel costs reimbursed for 4 years. I did that too when I was required to move.

Are you in the union i meant to add?

There will be policy documents on organisation change somewhere that will be on your intranet, or HR will be able to point you towards them.

Utterly depends on your role and department.

In our trust, most people have been completely unaffected but the management of the smaller trust was completely wiped out. Equally lots of senior roles were combined into one. There have also been lots of changes in finance/HR etc.

But for most people, they have carried on basically as they did before with some changes to make paperwork, policies etc the same across the whole trust.

I'd be surprised if there would be much impact on you at all. In the unlikely event you are required to move, your additional travel costs would be reimbursed, although probably for 2 years rather than 4 as that has been the standard in each Trust I've worked in.

I was in an admin role on band 4 and experienced no change at all. Same job, same base. The only admin type job that moved was the post-grad education administrator. She moved from our hospital to the new headquarters, 40 mins away.

The only people to lose jobs were very senior management at director level.

@Glowerglass. Yes I’m in the union.I’ll have a look at the policy docs thanks. I hope it’s just my email address that changes also.

@KiaOra: The travel expenses would help, but I’d be travelling further away from home. The other side of a large city.

@Hulder. I’m a receptionist in an outpatient clinic under health records. Hopefully no changes with the management there, as they leave people in the depts where their skills lie. If new management came in, the worry is they’ll shake the dept up, move people about, close clinics...

Thanks all, it is reassuring to read that nothing has changed for any of you. Fingers crossed 🤞

I was a band 3 admin and was redeployed elsewhere in the Trust as my job apparently wasn't needed anymore. It was fine as the new job was better for me.

Another band 3 ended up travelling to the new Central site once a month, she didn't drive but managed to get lifts.

I doubt they'll ask you to travel too much as a band 2, it was the band 6/7's that ended up having to relocate and were given travel allowance for a few years.

@JeffJarrett: pleased that your redeployment turned out to be better for you.

In the current Trust under Health Records, I’ve seen numerous changes of managers/supervisors as it is, I’ve lost count...

Our two hospital sites merged and I was moved from one, in my hometown, to the other 30 miles away (and I had to do on-call so numerous trips up and down during the night)! Our department was relocated to the one site and we were all moved. We were given 4 years of travel costs and that was it.

I left and went back to my old job (15 miles away) - a lot happier. Most others left too! They have regular adverts on the NHS jobs website as they can't recruit staff. Duh. Wonder why?