Union lobby to protest at health switch-over

The country's largest union Unite will be lobbying Thursday's board meeting of NHS Hull at the Maltings in Silvester Street about the handing over of services visiting to a social enterprise.

Some services, including district nurses and health visitors, will separate from the primary care trust on June 1 to form a new organisation, City Health Care Partnership.

Unite and other staff unions have repeatedly asked managers to hold a ballot to test staff opinion. In Bedfordshire, Greenwich and West Essex staff have voted against the move.

Unions are concerned about what could happen in future when the company will have to compete in the marketplace against other healthcare providers. A Unite statement added: "If the social enterprise loses its contracts to, for example, a North American private healthcare company in five years time, jobs could be lost and services to the public could become fragmented.

"The ethos of a NHS providing a unified, joined-up service for patients could disappear."

Unite regional officer Tony Randerson said social enterprises were "a leap in the dark" and the public had not been fully informed.

He said: "We are urging the people of Hull to get behind this campaign as the very future of many NHS community services in the city are at stake. Social enterprises are a half-way house to the privatisation of the NHS."

Around 1,500 staff who work for the PCT including district nurses, health visitors and the substance misuse service will be affected. The PCT has said it has kept staff fully informed and given assurances that those transferring to the new company will retain their terms and conditions of employment.