BARNSLEY hospital is cutting emergency surgical cover and demoting nurses on the basis of interviews and application forms rather than skills, union reps claim.
Implementation of the plan to demote about 150 senior nurses, who stand to lose thousands of pounds in pay and benefits, is now taking effect and has been met with outrage from staff.
At the same time the number of senior nurses on overnight theatre duty is being reduced from three to two, with an additional nurse on call.
Bosses say they have assessed the demand after midnight and are confident ‘the changes will not affect safe practice’.
GMB union rep Martin Jackson disagreed, he said surgery at this time of night is an emergency and the staff involved have to cover both A&E and maternity departments.
He believes there would be no cost benefit because an on-call nurse will still have to be paid.
Barnsley’s Royal College of Nursing rep Sue West used to be a theatre nurse and she says calling someone in during the night to help with emergency surgery is not ideal: “We think it will impact on service delivery and care.”
Full story in this week's Chronicle
