I recieved a phone call from my senior manager about half an hour ago, informing me that there was a ‘compulsory’ staff meeting at half ten, with HR, payroll and union representatives present. She’s off to Sri-Lanka tomorrow, and ‘didnt want this hanging over her’. Apparently, the service I work for (rehabilitation and recovery psychiatric unit, NHS) is not being recommisioned for next year – in plain English, come March next year, around forty nursing and support staff are going to be looking for new jobs.

Best of British mate.

Do they not have to place you elsewhere in the NHS?

To all intents and purposes, yes, but the trust I work for is in such dire straits financially (supposedly has to cut 43% of its budget over the next three years), that I cant see this happening.

Is the service been ‘moved’ or has it been decided that its just not required?

If the former, get looking of ‘who’ is going to supply, and get in there. If the latter…

Just need to attend this meeting and try to find out what the commissioners are looking for in terms of service. Just a bit of a shock, to be honest, and I only rejoined the NHS in May.

good luck mate! keep us updated

Will do. I’m on a late shift following the meeting, but will catch up later. This was a bad time to pack in smoking, but at least it puts arguing about religion and what tyres? threads into perspective.

Don’t get too down about it just yet. Wait to see what they actually say first.

Sorry to hear that. Thought they weren’t cutting from the NHS? 🙁

You’re right, and at the minute, I’m not getting down, just a bit ‘numb’ really. I’m fairly sure there’ll be talk of offering ‘alternative’ services, which as we all know means cheaper services, so I’ll just wait and see. grum – as far as I was aware, they were just going to try and ‘reduce’ non-clinical roles, but the bottom line is, they’ll do what they want at the end of the day. I realise he cant be held directly responsible, but this could be all part of that nice Mr Camerons vision of a ‘more streamlined’ NHS. I got shafted by the Thatcher government in ’85, and this is just giving me a feeling of having been there before.

Bad news if the worst comes to the worst.

The cynic in me would say that essential services such as you provide are possibly the easiest to ‘lose’ when compared to those treating physical illness. Sad indictment of the system and shows how out of touch with reality some bean counters are 😥

Best of luck mate.

talk of offering ‘alternative’ services

You need a suede jacket my man.

Good luck mate, fingers crossed for you!

woody – sadly, I have to agree with you. Whenever politicians etc, start banging on about the NHS, people automatically presume its about general hospitals. Psychiatric care has always been a bit ‘invisible’, an aspect of care that people prefer not to acknowledge or have little understanding of.

Surrounded By Zulus – Member

Do they not have to place you elsewhere in the NHS?

None of our local mental health sevices will be NHS come April. Yes, we will have an NHS logo but funded/managed very differently.

No cuts to nhs is a complete myth.

There have always been cuts planned, the breakup of the Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care trusts was on its way beginning of this year regardless of the outcome of the general election, and there is also a further (Con/Dem) white paper on ‘restructuring’ (ie cuts) which is going through at the same time. The timing of the breakup of PCT’s and the ‘streamlining’ of services at the same time is complete madness and would be a far better use of your taxes if they were done at least a year apart, but this is un-newsworthy, so therefore is quietly batteld via high court challenges from the (shudders) unions rather than making the papers.

I feels for barnsleymitch, having had my old (NHS mental health) service closed with five days notice even back in the ‘well funded’ days of the early noughties (i was redeployed thank goodness) this is a hugely uncertain time, but there will be hundreds more similar teams and stories in the coming months.

Its completely Camerons fault – “the buck stops here” Other people are at fault as well but he is responsible.

Its all about creating profit for his chums in private medicine companies

No cuts to nhs is a complete myth.

Sorry yeah I needed a sarcasm smiley.

no sarcasm smiley needed grum, I took it as intended.

Just explaining the reality behind the spin. No cuts to the NHS is a breeze if you farm most of it out to social enterprise/local authority managment isn’t it?

this is a hugely uncertain time, but there will be hundreds more similar teams and stories in the coming months.

+1

nearly every CPN or social worker working in mental health (mainly community teams)i’ve spoken to recently has expressed concern over their department or job.

fingers crossed for you B’mitch, if it all hits the fan, get yourself admitted and have some fun being the ultimate patient, free food and board after all.

I’ll just need to get some s**t flinging tips from elfinsafety! 😉

Mitch, once you’re admittted, just walk round reception area with ‘little Mitch’ on display and you’ll get a single room to yourself too. Seems to be the order of things in our local unit. 😆

PRN, sleeping tablets, 3 meals, the opportunity to be rude to anyone you want, including staff and doctors you used to work with…. i’m almost tempted to do it myself!

117 aftercare here i come.

Sorry to hear the news. Look for the positives – more riding your bike. I spent 9 mths doing that last year.

A friend of mine is a psychiatric nurse and she’s been put on short term contracts, none longer than 3 months.
Hope it works out for you.

Sorry to hear that. It’s ****ing insane that we are honouring ridiculous PFI agreements, whilst cutting this kind of service (or handing ’em over to bludy Serco). It’s like something out of Kafka.

Cuts to social services are having a direct knock-on effect on the ability to discharge ‘stable’ (but otherwise vulnerable) patients from acute hospital beds. I work in Emergency Surgical Admissions – and there is a serious head-brickwall interface going on at the mo’. Perhaps Gideon is going to take them all in himself…. I mean, that’s how the Big Society is going to work, right? 👿

Hope things work out ok.

noteeth – Member
Sorry to hear that. It’s ****ing insane that we are honouring ridiculous PFI agreements, whilst cutting this kind of service (or handing ’em over to bludy Serco). It’s like something out of Kafka.

Another NHS employee here with uncertainty in the future, but can we remember that Bliar did say prior to the 1997 election that New Labour would do away with PFI, and yet my indebted trust has just opened a new PFI build this year. So while it is the Condems cutting the budgets, the problems stem for decisions much further back.

I’m a diabetes nurse specialist, and my trust has spent the last few weeks reviewing all nurse specialist posts – I can’t see that we’ll all still be emplyed by the organisation this time next year.

the problems stem for decisions much further back

Oh, I agree entirely. The ConDems should invoke some kind of emergency power and simply ditch PFI – for the sake of national interest.

Oh, I agree entirely. The ConDems should invoke some kind of emergency power and simply ditch PFI – for the sake of national interest.

Still won’t remove the NHS debt, that won’t be gone for another generation.

that won’t be gone for another generation

By which time the NHS will have been dismantled…

Hope something comes up, I am sure there are friends and families of many of your patients also fairly worried by all this too.

I am not sure if the trusts were a good idea, dont know enough about it. But Ponte/Wakefield have sold all their assets to Balfour Beatty to keep themselves afloat for a bit longer.

The ConDems should invoke some kind of emergency power and simply ditch PFI – for the sake of national interest.

would be lovely but legally impossible.

In the same boat OP and the only option until you get the paper is to look at other jobs in other areas.

The cuts are shoddy and the jobs that replace are part time shop work?
People will suffer like hell.

I suggest you go to Uni and become a banker.

Well, that was emotional. Ward will be decommissioned from the 31st March next year, no alternative service discussed or offered. As I’ve only been back in the NHS for four months, I dont qualify for redundancy or for eligibility for the ‘at risk’ jobs list elsewhere in the trust. In a nutshell, I’ve got to bend over and take it. To add insult to injury, my ward manager is on long term sick, I’m acting up in her place, so I’m the one that has to tie up all the loose ends and support staff throughout the process, knowing full well that there’s no possibility of a job at the end of it.

feel for you mate the the shape of things to come. They are not going to close some high profile units such as maternity and itu when they can cut underfunded and underesourced low profile unglamourous unit like psych rehab. It stinks, we need more of these units not less and the care will be handed over to the private sector or “care in the community”

That is gutting. Feel for you mate.

I dont think there’s anything I could write which would help… I’m so sorry to hear that mate! I hope you’ve got someone to share a drink with there, I know I’d need one.

You’re a hero for acting up as manager in that situation, the nhs needs managers like you! Thought about looking for managers positions in the community, possibly private?

My Mrs just had a meeting has she works for the Facilities side of the NHS
in London and they are joining up with Two other boroughs in London and
thoughs are near retirement are being asked if they want to take this made up redundancy where they are offering Two weeks pay for every year as
opposed to One months pay as they cant guarantee they have job once they
reach retirement age.

That’s gutting mate – sorry to hear. Also makes me really angry that such an important service is being cut. Depressing times.

😥

Bad news mitch – sorry to hear that.

I hope the tory basterds balls all fester