I missed this in this morning’s edition of the Times of London but about an hour after this post, Sky News put it up:
Thousands of doctors and nurses may be sacked unless they agree to drastic changes to their pay and conditions as hospitals strive to make billions of pounds worth of savings, it has been claimed.
NHS bosses have suggested terminating all staff contracts and reoffering them on different terms, according to a leaked document obtained by The Sunday Times.
New terms could include pay cuts of up to 5%, an end to overtime for nights, weekends and bank holidays, and reduced holiday leave, the newspaper said.
These measures could affect up to 60,000 health professionals in the South West of England, where chief executives have acknowledged they would need to act “in unison”, the paper reports.
The document was prepared by 19 NHS bosses to maintain patient services in the face of multimillion-pound budget cuts, The Sunday Times adds.
The paper claims at least two other hospitals in Surrey and Manchester have considered the plans, but health chiefs in the South West suggest working together in order to prevent being “singled out” and unable to take on the unions.
They believe that by co-operating they will be able to overcome an “extremely hostile” reaction to the steps, especially if they take the “last resort” of sacking all staff and re-engaging them on less favourable terms, The Sunday Times says.
Laws of supply and demand, folks. This is what price controls yield.
Here’s your future, nurses and doctors of America – unless Obamacare is repealed.
Utah, you worry about a shortage of doctors in America, right? Sounds as if a bunch of british sawbones might be making their way to our environs before long.
Yes, Greg, they want to leave England to come over here to the same conditions they left.
A close friend is an “upper shelf nurse” at Bay Medical ( Sacred Heart) and she told me yesterday that it is unreal the number of doctors that are refusing to accept the pay scale there.
It’s also unreal that “Tom”, RN who has been employed at The Big BM for more than 10 years, is among a nearly 100% population of Registered Nurses that have not seen a merit raise in 7 years.
The NW Florida area has three major payer bases … Medicare, TriCare(modeled off Medicare), and Blue Cross, Blue Shield of FL. Price fixing has killed The BIg BM (as well as their inability to adjust spending despite the cuts).
**laughing** You think it’s as easy as all that? Tell me… do you propose to train up an entire medical staff overnight? The doctors and nurses should call this bluff.
Bullwinkle: “Hey Rocky! Watch me pull an entire medical staff out of a hat!”
Rocky: “Again?”
In the pantheon of Rocky/Bullwinkle analogies, this one is near the top of the pile.
Ranks right up there with the freebie cracks such as free healthcare huh?