Shake-up of laundry services in hospitals puts 50 jobs at risk

Martin Slack

MORE than 50 jobs could be at risk at two of the area’s biggest hospitals after managers announced plans to close their in-house laundry services in an attempt to save money.

Executives at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust revealed yesterday they planned to “outsource” the work of laundries in Worksop and Doncaster.

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It is claimed that facilities at both Bassetlaw Hospital and Doncaster Royal Infirmary are “outdated” and force staff to work in unacceptable conditions by modern standards.

Estimates suggest that bringing the laundries up to standard would cost the trust about 2.5m, a sum interim chief executive Peter Reading insisted could not be entertained.

He said: “The staff working in our laundries do a terrific job, working to very high standards. However, the equipment available is far from ideal so this difficult decision is simply down to economics.

“We are effectively subsidising the laundry from our patient care budgets.

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“If we had 2.5m to spare, it would go on patient care – medical equipment, refurbishing wards and departments, and so on. I don’t think anyone could argue with that.”

Between them, the two laundries process 3.9 million pieces of laundry a year at a cost of 1.6m. The hospitals trust said the average cost of the linen service is 41.2p per piece.

Mr Reading said outsourcing was expected to save 361,000 a year cutting the price per piece by as much as 8p depending on contract negotiations, reducing costs by 20 per cent.

He said if outsourcing is finally approved, trust staff will manage the contract closely to ensure high standards at all times. The trust’s workers would also distribute linen on each hospital site.

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At present, the trust’s laundries also deal with linen and other items from its hospitals in Retford and the Montagu Hospital in Mexborough. They will also be covered by the outsourcing agreement.

Mr Reading added: “We’re in the business of treating patients – that’s our prime objective, not running a laundry service.

“There are hardly any hospitals that do their own laundry these days – that’s because specialist companies can achieve the same quality standards, but can do it more cheaply.

“If this proposal goes ahead, we will monitor cost and quality tightly to make sure that we get value for money.”

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A series of nine options have been considered for the future of the laundries and the trust board, which oversees work at the hospitals, was asked to decide which was best.

A study was carried out into merging the laundries, building a new laundry on or off one of the trust’s sites and entering into a joint venture with a neighbouring trust. Outsourcing was seen as the only viable option.

The trust said 56 staff would be affected by the move to outsourcing but there was potential for 10 people to remain employed in some capacity while others may be re-deployed.

It is expected that Bassetlaw Hospital’s laundry will be closed first, with its work temporarily transferring to the larger laundry, pending negotiations with possible contractors.

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A trust spokesman said the date of closures would depend on the progress with negotiations but added that consultation with affected staff had begun.

The spokesman added that setting up the contract and agreeing standards for transporting infected linen will be overseen by the Trust’s Infection Prevention and Control team.

She added that the trust is unusual in the NHS in having its own laundries, and said concerns over cleanliness standards had been addressed by other hospitals across the country with the laundry companies many times over.