THE largest NHS board in Scotland has opened talks about privatising the service which looks after its own staff's health.
THE largest NHS board in Scotland has opened talks about privatising the service which looks after its own staff's health.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has angered its in-house occupational health team with a proposal to contract out the service.
Today a union leader even suggested the move was a slur on health professionals working in the city.
Managers with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde wrote to staff earlier this month saying the board was negotiating a deal with Capita Health Solutions, the private company providing occupational health cover for Glasgow City Council.
Matt McLaughlin, a regional organiser with health union Unison, said: "This amounts to the health board saying, Our services are not good enough for our own staff'.
"We don't accept that."
Mr McLaughlin said the move would force occupational health staff to leave the health service and transfer to the private company if they wanted to keep their jobs.
He said: "Unison is appalled that the NHS has decided to embark upon a privatisation plan for this essential in-house service."
The union rep said bringing in a private contractor was no guarantee the board would cut sickness rates.
He said: "Our members in the service accept that occupational health could be better developed and further enhanced.
"It is much easier to achieve this with your own staff than it is to change services that are provided under rigid contracts with the private sector."
He said the board wanted to avoid the "hassle" of improving the service by contracting it out.
A health board spokeswoman confirmed there had been talks with Capita.
She said: "NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is exploring possible changes to the way in which we provide occupational health services for our staff."
"One of the main reasons behind consideration of this change is to ensure we provide the most effective and efficient service for our NHS staff.
"In addition, the increasing number of our staff who work in partnerships and the need to provide a consistent service has led us to explore this option in more detail."
Mr McLaughlin said almost 6000 staff from the board's hospitals' division alone needed help from the occupational health service in the space of 12 months.
He said poor management leading to increased stress was behind the figure.
He insisted: "The Board would do better to find out what is making their staff sick at work - and to work with staff to improve their conditions."
