Scandal of health workers’ contracts.
Patients’ lives are being put at risk say health campaigners after it emerged the number of medical staff on zero hours contracts has more than doubled.
The controversial deals mean doctors and nurses are not guaranteed a steady income or regular hours.
Critics claim that leads to beleaguered patients being treated by different medics every day as staff work on short-term deals and odd shifts.
A Sunday Post investigation revealed the number of zero hours contracts had increased in Lancashire, Cumbria, North Yorkshire and the North East from 1,572 in 2009/10 to 3,349 in 2012/13.
In the wake of damning reports criticising staffing levels and training regimes Trevor Johnston Unison’s head of health for the north region branded the findings of our probe “horrendous”.
He said: “For patients it is really worrying given we have just had several reports where safety was a major concern.
“All of them say it is not the staff’s fault, it is the structure. On zero hours the staff have no buy-in, they are in one place one day and another the next.
“There is not the same commitment to patient care or team mentality.”
Trevor, who represents workers throughout the region also warns that patients face added risk because he believes trusts are unwilling to invest in training for zero hours staff.
He said: “They cannot get mortgages and loans but from the staff’s point of view how do they get trained?
“Staff like to feel they are part of something. If you are coming in for one day to do a shift and then you are not there for another week and a half you are not part of it.The issues around zero hours contracts are horrendous.”
Jamie Reed MP, Copeland MP and shadow health minister, said: “These figures illustrate the worrying rise of the zero-hours culture in the NHS under David Cameron.”
Jamie added: “Good care can only be provided through consistent contact between patient and professional; this cannot be maintained on a here-today, gone-tomorrow basis. When the NHS is providing care to the most vulnerable people in society, it cannot be engaged in a race to the bottom on employment practices as we see in other sectors.”
Recent research carried out by Labour revealed 67,000 NHS staff across the UK are now on zero hours contracts with three quarters of hospitals now using the controversial deals.
A NHS England spokesman said: “We aim to ensure the highest quality service. We are assured that staffing levels are suitable to deliver this quality. How trusts and other service providers choose to manage and contract their staff is entirely a matter for those organisations.”
A Department of Health spokesman addd: “NHS and social care organisations are independent in their own right and make their own employment decisions about staff.
“But we are clear that these decisions must be based on providing the best care.”
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