Supplementary memorandum by Bradford Hospitals
NHS Trust Non-Clinical Support Services Division (PS 42A)
ANCILLARY STAFFING
ISSUES
Background information
Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust is a first wave
Acute Trust operating over two hospital sites. It has approximately
4,000 staff and a budget of £130 million. The Trust has 1,240
beds.
Non-Clinical Support Services
The Non-Clinical Support Services Division includes
Hotel Services (Catering, Cleaning, Portering, Waste Management,
Linen Services, Residential Accommodation, Switchboard), Patient
Administration, Non-Professional training and Development and
Chaplaincy Services.
Service Delivery
In terms of ancillary services, up until June
2001 the services were delivered in the following way:
Bradford Royal Infirmary
— Portering Services—In-house
— Cleaning Services—In-house
— Catering Services—Contractor—Medirest
— Linen Services—Contractor—Healthtex
St Luke's Hospital
— Portering Services—Contractor—Initial
Services
— Cleaning Services (old hospital site)—In-house
— Cleaning Services (new hospital site)—Contractor—Initial
Services
— Catering Services—Contractor—Medirest
— Linen Services—Contractor—Healthtex
As a result of a competitive tendering and value
for money exercise all the services (except Linen Services) were
brought back in-house.
Issues
Quality: The quality of service delivered by
the contractor was inconsistent, in particular, Catering Services.
Cost: The in-house bid met fully the service
specification at the lowest cost.
Staffing: All Contractor staff transferred to
the employment of the Trust on 1 June 2001 on their current Terms
and Conditions of Service (TUPE Regulations). In most cases these
Terms and Conditions were inferior to the Trust's Terms and Conditions.
The process of harmonising Terms and Conditions is currently taking
place and the finance to enable this to happen was identified
in the in-house bid. It will, however, take some time to manage.
Training and Development: It was apparent when
the staff transferred to the Trust that little, if no, training
and development had taken place by the Contractor. We have, therefore,
instigated a systematic review of all their training and development
needs to enable them to be at the same standard as Trust staff.
Management: In the Catering Service it has become
apparent that there has been no systematic approach to managing
the service. Indeed in the last five years of the contract the
Contractor has had five different Operational General Managers
in the post at Bradford. The Trust is picking up the results of
poor management and rectifying often very difficult situations.
NB It should be noted that all these issues
are based only on the Bradford experience.
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