Hundreds of non-clinical support staff are being forced out of NHS employment by East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) by a process that appeared all along to be secretive and dishonest.
Back at the beginning of April last year the main union, UNISON, reacted strongly to a management letter to staff saying that housekeeping, security and other services related to the running of Colchester Hospital were to be privatised: this was following a decision of a private board meeting.
UNISON’s requests to see the business case setting out the argument for privatisation (which other trusts making similar proposals would normally provide) were refused, which appeared from the outset to be a cover for the lack of any coherent or credible case.
Ever since then ESNEFT has refused to provide full information, while still indignantly defending what they have done.
Local campaigners Suffolk Keep Our NHS Public, who sought to challenge the Trust, were advised there was an arguable legal case that ESNEFT’s behaviour – and secrecy – led to a failure in its duties around engagement and consultation. However, the group was unable to raise the high costs of taking ESNEFT to a full Judicial Review.
What is certain is that ESNEFT could have been open, and could have engaged: but it chose not to. But more important, it turns out nobody could make them do it. Despite vigorous challenge, the Integrated Care Board refused point blank to become involved – or, astonishingly, even to read the Trust’s proposals.
What allowed both the Trust and the ICB to get away with this outrageous behaviour was a ludicrous assumption that ‘non-clinical services’ like cleaning and portering were not part of the NHS’s Standard Contract with the Trust, which dealt only with ‘clinical’ services. However it is quite obvious that clinical services can only be delivered if adequate non-clinical support services are in place.
Full article in The Lowdown, 6 March 2025
