Not content with denying staff the standard NHS overtime rate – namely, 1.5 times their basic pay – for this additional work, the trusts have now decided to reduce bank pay rates to the lowest (entry) point of each NHS pay band regardless of whether a member of staff is on a higher pay level by virtue of their knowledge, skills and experience.
This means that, for example, a staff nurse who has progressed to the top point of their pay band will be up to £40 worse off for working a 12.5-hour bank shift compared to a regular shift.
I hope you will agree it is unacceptable and manifestly unfair that a nurse who does an extra shift, who goes the extra mile, will now be paid less than their basic hourly rate for that shift – a basic rate, I hasten to add, that their employer accepts without question as deserving remuneration for a ‘regular’ shift. It’s nothing short of exploitation.
I have written to the trusts to express my dismay and concern about these cuts and the very real likelihood that staff will stop opting to do bank shifts as a consequence of their commitment and goodwill being so devalued, depleting staffing capacity and jeopardising the delivery of safe patient care.
I have urged the trusts to reinstate fair bank pay rates. I am mindful that NHS finances are constrained but it defies logic that the trusts seem indifferent to the reality that if hundreds of nursing staff stop doing thousands of hours of bank shifts, it will end up costing more money to plug the staffing gaps with agency workers, with taxpayers ultimately footing the bill. Either this own goal or staffing shortages will worsen, piling more pressure on the workforce, causing sickness absence to rise and exposing patients to a greater risk of care being compromised and delays to vital diagnostic tests and treatment.
I have enclosed a report of the results of a recent survey in which almost 1,000 of our members in these trusts said they would stop doing bank shifts if the cuts are not withdrawn. Many say they have already stopped. More than 1,300 members also took the time to spell out the impact they believe this will have – and indeed is already starting to have – on them, their families, their colleagues and their patients. The local and specialist press have, at our invitation, reported on these worrying headline findings, and remain interested in this matter.
Because of the sheer volume of responses, the report runs to 113 pages. I appreciate, of course, that you may not have the time to read each testimony. I have read each one, all 70,000 words, and I can assure you that the sentiments expressed in the title of the report - Insulted, devalued, demoralised, disgusted and fearing for patients – are duly representative and proportionate.
As we reflect on the fifth anniversary of the start of the Covid pandemic, I’m sure the public who showed their support and appreciation for NHS workers on those Thursday evenings in 2020 will be surprised and disappointed to discover this is how the people they celebrated so warmly are now being treated.
I hope you will consider contacting your local trust to express your concern about the cuts in support of our endeavour to overturn them. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries or wish to discuss this matter further.
Yours sincerely
Lindsay Meeks
Regional Director
RCN West Midlands
