Hospital staff who take too many days off sick will miss out on an automatic annual pay rise under the latest NHS cost-cutting drive.
Bosses of Salford Royal, Wythenshawe and Central Manchester Hospitals have set attendance targets staff must achieve if they want to get nationally agreed raises worth around £1,000.
Poor performance and misconduct could also cost staff the chance to take home more cash at Salford Royal and Wythenshawe hospitals, with Central Manchester set to follow suit next year.
Nursing representatives have condemned the moves, saying they breach national pay agreements and discriminate against some staff.
Maria Bryant, from the Royal College of Nursing, said: “In essence, this is a pay freeze which is discriminatory.
“Undoubtedly, this will affect nurses’ morale at a very difficult time for front-line staff in the NHS.”
Following a national review of NHS wages in 2004, staff receive an annual increase until they reach the top of their pay band.
Central Manchester trust, which runs the Manchester Royal Infirmary, the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, St Mary’s and the eye and dental hospitals, will refuse rises to staff who have taken more than 18 days sick or four separate periods off work with illness.
The guidelines at Salford Royal, to start in November 2011, mean up to 28 sickness days will trigger a six-month delay in wage increase and more than 56 sickness days will result in a year’s delay.
There are no fixed absence targets at Wythenshawe Hospital but it is one element of a new appraisal system which staff must undergo in order to get the raise.
In April the M.E.N. reported how Central Manchester chiefs were trying to save £104m over the next four years – now they say they must find £120m by 2014 in order to safeguard jobs.
Salford Royal has also previously said they plan to axe 750 jobs but say they will avoid compulsory redundancies.
Dozens of non-medical bosses are also expected to lose their jobs in a shake-up at Wythenshawe Hospital which will put doctors in charge of running the hospital and save £17m.
A spokeswoman for Wythenshawe Hospital said: “In 2010 we opened an ‘appraisal window’ from May-July which will run every year in future.
“The outcome of this has been a dramatic increase in the number of staff completing their appraisal and also in our mandatory training figures.
“Staff attendance levels have also improved.”
David Wood, director of organisational development at Salford Royal, said: “Pay progression is a reward, not a right. We believe these increases should be awarded for better performance.”
The moves come after the M.E.N revealed in May how health bosses were ordered by the government to slash £1bn from their spending plans for the NHS in Greater Manchester over the next four years – more than five per cent of the annual budget of around £4.5bn.
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If these so called "Health-care" trusts actually cared anything about the health of their staff there wouldnt be so much sickness in the first place !
So let me get this straight.........at Salford Royal, I can take 56 days off sick, and all that happens to me is that I don't get extra money?! I get to keep everything else I've got, but just don't get extra?! Sounds like an OK deal to me considering the climate of austerity that we find ourselves in!!!!! Everyone else is being made redundant or having to take pay cuts, and the Royal College of Nursing is complaining because people who don't turn up for work don't get a bonus! Shameful.
I assume "Seenit, somewherebefore" who comments previously is one of the work-shy members of staff who'll be caught out by this!
Fair play to the managers for making these decisions - we should be spending tax payers money on delivering care to patients and not having to employ agency staff to cover for the lazy, serial sick day takers. My only complaint would be that this doesn't go far enough.
REAL FACTS ABOUT COST CUTTING IN SALFORD ROYAL HOSPITAL!!!
I am a member of staff currently working in Sterile service dept (SSD). I would like to keep my identity confidential due to personal reason. Salford Royal hospital (SRH) has been trying to save millions of Pounds as a part of cost cutting which is causing risks/threats to lots of people’s job. But due to mis-management and negligence, thousands of pounds has been wasted in SSD while one side of hospital is trying to save money.
1. The SSD has been totally demolished, to build the new hospital building .The decision was to give contact to different private companies, which didn’t happen. At the end the SSD had to rent the facilities of a private company in Stockport (from March 2009 onwards).From there onwards, the money was wasted like anything ……
2. Few staff left the job when the dept was moved to Stockport … there for SRH has to appoint new employees for the same post. 5 members from the same family have been employed due to the influence of one of the supervisor. They were employed on temporary basis , but they are going to be permanent staff in near future .
3. Trust has provided the transport for all the employees from SRH to Stockport . Travel time was included in the working hours making staff to work 1 hours less . All the staff were moved on to night shift as their facility can’t be utilized during day time , making the trust to pay for night enhancement to around 35 staff. Prior to this move there were only 10 staff were on night shift.
DETAILS OF WASTE OF MONEY IN ONE MONTH:
Taxi fare: NEARLY £5000 per month for transportation.
Nearly 25 staff gets travel time = 25 hours paid/day = £250 /day is wasted
= 250 X 25days = £6250/month
Additional night enhancement: 30 X25 = £ 750 /day ( Average night enhancement/person ( Band 2 )=30 . Additional night staff recruited – 25 )
= 750 X 25 days = £18750/month.
Fuel charge for the sterile equipments to be transported back to the hospital: nearly £3000/month.
Payment for the drivers for the goods transport: nearly £2500/month
The rent paid for the company : unknown ( It is expected to be a big amount )
Money waste in 1 month = 5000 + 6250 +18750 + 3000 + 2500
= £35,500 which is excluding the rent for the company .
This has been happening for the past 18 months = 18 X 35500
= £ 6,39,000 ( which is excluding the rent for the private company )
In addition to this:-
The quality of instruments being sterilized in the new setting is of poor and there for lots of surgeries has been cancelled causing wastage of money and man power.
. Instruments go missing/ unfit to be used, making it unable to use the whole pack, wasting money! Some of the trays been sterilized still remain wet , which is supposed
to be re-sterilized . But at present it is being dried outside by keeping it in shelves and send to the theatre , which is causing a great risk to the patients itself !