27.07.15
RCN: £1.8bn staff redundancy bill a ‘slap in the face’
The chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says the billions wasted on staff redundancy pay-offs in the NHS represent a “slap in the face”.
Dr Peter Carter said the nearly £2bn spent on making staff redundant was “literally money down the drain” in a time of major staff shortage crisis – especially as 5,500 of those workers were later rehired.
“While [nursing staff] were experiencing a pay freeze, over 3,000 staff received more than £100k in redundancy payments. To recruit and retain much needed nursing staff, the workforce needs to be recognised and valued. Instead, while they have endured pay constraint, others have received these excessive redundancy payments.
“At a time where staff are so vitally needed at all levels, from administration to specialist consultants, it is worrying that money has been wasted on actually reducing the workforce. The government needs to ensure that every penny of NHS funding is used in a productive, efficient way that is beneficial to patient care and recognises the supreme efforts of NHS staff,” he said.
This came after new figures last week proved the NHS had spent about £1.8bn on staff redundancy payments since the government’s health service restructuring, with more than 44,000 people being laid off in the last five years. Almost 500 of them were given severance payments exceeding £200,000 while over 3,000 staff received more than £100,000 – despite around 5,500 of them being rehired by the NHS in another job.
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham told Sky News yesterday (26 Sunday) that figures had “hit a new high”.
He said: “No wonder morale in the NHS is at rock bottom. This was a reorganisation that didn’t need to happen. They’ve thrown money at redundancies, given people payoff cheques like confetti at the NHS at a time when we’re not doing right by the staff.”