NHS Trust in £350,000 ‘Alice in Wonderland’ recruitment splurge

21 April 2008

Health workers, not accountants, should be recruited, says Unite

A cash-strapped NHS trust that wants to severely cut back on patient services at Bridlington Hospital is spending money big-time………..on more finance staff.

Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust are advertising for 12 new staff for its finance team that could mean an annual salary bill of more than £350,000 – this is despite the trust imposing a recruitment freeze since last November.

Unite Head of Health Kevin Coyne said: ‘We are entering an Alice Wonderland world where you employ more finance staff to oversee cuts to services. For £350,000, you could employ an extra 14 frontline healthcare staff providing patient care. ’

‘Because they are not replacing nurses on the wards, staffing levels are at dangerously low levels at Bridlington Hospital. There is not even a replacement for the hospital gardener, but there seems to be no freeze on finance staff recruitment, in fact exactly the opposite, a veritable splurge.’

The posts advertised range from £75,114-a-year for a Head of Finance and Procurement seeking ‘a real springboard’ for their career to £15,523-a-year for Payables Clerk – ‘we are not looking for just anyone’.

This recruitment bonanza comes after more than 37,000 local people signed a petition, handed in at Downing Street last month, opposing the closure of the cardiac monitoring unit and two acute medical wards at Bridlington Hospital.

Unite fears, that if the closures are allowed to go ahead, patients’ lives could be put at risk if they have to travel the 22 miles to Scarborough hospital for emergency treatment.

Kevin Coyne said: ‘We are not against proper financial procedures, but healthcare priorities in this part of North East Yorkshire are topsy-turvy – senior trust managers need to take a serious reality check and listen to local people.’