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As well as providing protection in the workplace, representation and negotiating the Terms & Conditions for our members working in the NHS, the GMB also provides an effective voice for the thousands of hard working and dedicated staff who provide a valuable and vital service in what is regarded by all as a national treasure.
We have thousands of members working in the NHS in the North West & Irish region carrying out a variety of roles from cleaning and catering, administration and management to portering and Theatre and other technical staff and ambulance workers. The GMB is the union for hospitals, the ambulance service and the community.
The Tories and Lib Dems promised at the start of the Coalition Government 'We will stop the top-down reorganisations of the NHS that have got in the way of patient care'. Despite this, and in spite of a huge outcry, the coalition government are proposing to overhaul the National Health Service in England on a scale never seen before. They want much less public provision of healthcare and a lot more privatisation.
These reforms are the most radical shake up of the NHS since it was created after World War II. The effects of the reforms, if carried through, will be felt right across the NHS in England. Over one million NHS workers could be affected, as well as around 200 major hospitals and 8,000 GP surgeries.
The most obvious change being planned is that GPs will be put in control of much of the NHS budget. From 2013, they will take over responsibility for planning and buying services for their patients (e.g. hospital referrals). GPs will group together in 'consortia' to do this work. Health experts say that GPs could make big profits by holding back some of the money they are meant to spend on patients.
The move will lead to the abolition of the 151 Primary Care Trusts and 10 Strategic Health Authorities that oversee them – the GMB will be to be actively engaging in organising NHS workers pre-transfer so that we can suitably establish structures to organise and effectively represent our members.
In addition, the NHS will be opened up to the Private Sector on a scale never seen before. This is called the 'any willing provider' model. It essentially means private companies elbowing their way into more NHS contracts.
All NHS Trusts (e.g. hospitals) will have to become Foundation Trusts, run at arms-length from the Government. In future Foundation Trusts will be treated the same as private healthcare providers. They will have to compete for business and could go bust if the competition is too fierce.
More and more NHS staff will face the risk of being privatised or turned into a 'social enterprise'. These are meant to be primarily not-for-profit organisations. But they can be taken over by profit-making companies or out-muscled by them when services are put up for tender.
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