Parliament has been dissolved until after the general election and I am no longer an MP.Two Wirral MPs, Margaret
Greenwood and Mick Whitley have written to the Chief Executive and the Chairman
of Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (WUTH) over the
strike action currently being taken by clinical support workers based at Arrowe
Park and Clatterbridge hospitals.
The workers are striking over
pay and back-pay that they believe they are entitled to for carrying out duties
and tasks that are above their pay grade.
Unison, the union representing
the workers, has said that these clinical support workers, who are on Band 2 of
the NHS Agenda for Change pay scale, should only be providing personal
care to patients. This includes things like bathing and feeding.
However, for many years they
have also been undertaking clinical tasks, such as taking and
monitoring blood, performing electrocardiogram tests, taking patient
observations and removing cannulas. These are duties that should be
carried out by Band 3 staff – who receive around £2,000 a year more in wages.
Margaret Greenwood MP and Mick
Whitley MP say in their letter that these Band 2 clinical support workers
“deserve to be recognised financially for the additional work that they have
been doing.”
The dispute has escalated in
recent weeks, with strikes taking place at weekends for the first time since
action began in August of last year.
According to Unison, following
ACAS talks, the trust agreed to a back-pay date for the clinical support
workers of up to 1 April 2018, which is in line with agreements made with a
number of other trusts across the North West. The union has also explained that
WUTH agreed that undertaking one clinical duty from a list would be sufficient
to qualify for back-pay, however, the union understands that the trust's
proposed list of clinical duties is far more stringent than any lists which
have been agreed with trusts elsewhere in the region.
As a result, it seems that a
significant number of workers would be excluded from the process and miss out
on back-pay and re-grading – something which Margaret Greenwood and Mick
Whitley have said is “incredibly disappointing”.
In their letter, Margaret
Greenwood MP and Mick Whitley MP say:
“Clinical support workers are
incredibly important members of the NHS workforce. Those employed by WUTH
provide care and support to some of the most vulnerable patients in Wirral, and
they do it with a great deal of sensitivity and skill.
“They are vital to the
functioning of the NHS. Without them, services would not be able to run
effectively. They are dedicated and committed professionals who care deeply
about patients.
“It is a clear moral principle
that staff should be paid according to the level of work that they are required
to do and we urge you to make sure that this happens in Wirral. NHS staff
deserve to be treated fairly and in line with national job profiles.
“We understand that, having
agreed to back-pay up to 1 April 2018, we now have a situation where hundreds
of clinical support workers are not eligible to receive the higher levels of
pay and the back-pay to which they believe they are entitled.
“We are concerned about the
impact that this will have on the long term morale of not only clinical support
workers, but all staff at WUTH.
“We are concerned that WUTH has
still not been able to settle this dispute, especially given that three other
trusts in Cheshire and Merseyside – East Cheshire NHS Trust, Mid Cheshire
Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust
– have recently settled similar disputes by making what Unison has called
‘significantly better offers’.
“We also understand from Unison
that seven other trusts in the North West have also settled on much better
offers. Why hasn’t WUTH done this? Are clinical support workers valued less in
Wirral? We are concerned not only about these implications, but also what this
may mean for future recruitment.
“We understand that WUTH has
said that it remains open to talks and that it is committed to finding a
resolution. We call on you to make every effort to engage constructively
with the clinical support workers and Unison to bring about a swift and satisfactory
outcome to this dispute.”
***FULL
TEXT OF THE LETTER***
To:
Janelle Holmes, Chief Executive, and Sir David Henshaw, Chairman, Wirral
University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Sent
by email
6
February 2024
Dear Janelle and Sir David,
We are writing to you regarding the
strike action currently being undertaken by clinical support workers who are
employed by Wirral
University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (WUTH) at Arrowe Park and
Clatterbridge hospitals.
As
you know, they are taking strike action over pay and back-pay that they believe
they are entitled to for carrying out duties and tasks that are above their pay
grade.
Their
union, Unison, has said that these clinical support workers, who are on Band 2
of the NHS Agenda for Change pay scale, should only be providing personal
care to patients. This includes things like bathing and feeding. However,
Unison points out that for many years they have also been undertaking clinical
tasks, such as taking and monitoring blood, performing
electrocardiogram tests, taking patient observations and removing
cannulas. These are duties that should be carried out by Band 3 staff – who receive
around £2,000 a year more in wages.
These
Band 2 clinical support workers deserve to be recognised financially for the
additional work that they have been doing.
We
understand from Unison that, following initial strike action and ACAS talks,
the trust agreed to a back-pay date of up to 1 April 2018, which is in line
with agreements made with a number of trusts across the North West, and that
they agreed that undertaking one clinical duty from a list would be sufficient
to qualify for back-pay. However, we have heard that the trust's proposed list
of clinical duties is far more stringent than any lists which have been agreed
with trusts elsewhere in the region. For instance, Unison have told us that the
trust's list does not include a number of standalone clinical duties which are
included on the Band 3 NHS national job profile, such as patient observations,
removing cannulas, blood glucose testing and removing catheters, despite the
fact that these duties should be paid for at Band 3. As a result, it seems that
under the trust's proposals a significant number of workers would be excluded
from the process.
This
is incredibly disappointing. It is a clear moral principle that staff should be
paid according to the level of work that they are required to do and we urge
you to make sure that this happens in Wirral. NHS staff deserve to be treated
fairly and in line with national job profiles.
We
understand that, having agreed to back-pay up to 1 April 2018, we now have a
situation where hundreds of clinical support workers are not eligible to
receive the higher levels of pay and the back-pay to which they believe they
are entitled.
We
are concerned about the impact that this will have on the long term morale of
not only clinical support workers, but all staff at WUTH.
We are concerned that WUTH has
still not been able to settle this dispute, especially given that three other
trusts in Cheshire and Merseyside – East
Cheshire NHS Trust, Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Warrington
and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust – have recently settled similar
disputes by making what Unison has called “significantly better offers”. We
also understand from Unison that seven other trusts in the North West have also
settled on much better offers. Why hasn’t WUTH done this? Are clinical support
workers valued less in Wirral? We are concerned not only about these
implications, but also what this may mean for future recruitment.
As
you will clearly be aware, clinical support workers are incredibly important
members of the NHS workforce. Those employed by WUTH provide care and support
to some of the most vulnerable patients in Wirral, and they do it with a great
deal of sensitivity and skill.
They
are vital to the functioning of the NHS. Without them, services would not be
able to run effectively. They are dedicated and committed professionals who
care deeply about patients.
It
is also evident that the clinical support workers have the backing of local
communities across Wirral.
Strikes have escalated in recent
weeks, with weekend dates included in the action for the first time since it
began in August of last year. This is concerning for the staff involved, for
patients and for the running of NHS services in Wirral.
We understand that WUTH has said
that it remains open to talks and that it is committed to finding a resolution. We call on you
to make every effort to engage
constructively with the clinical support workers and Unison to bring about a
swift and satisfactory outcome to this dispute.
Yours
sincerely,
Margaret
Greenwood MP Mick
Whitley MP
Member
of Parliament for Wirral West Member
of Parliament for Birkenhead
Promoted by and on behalf of Margaret Greenwood MP, 20 Rushworth Street, London SE1 0SS