Concern over return of hospital resignation scheme
The scheme was last used at the Royal Derby Hospital in 2019
- Published
Unison members have expressed concerns about the reintroduction of a resignation scheme at the Royal Derby Hospital.
The hospital has offered its Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme (MARS) to non-clinical staff.
NHS managers have said it is not a redundancy programme, because while staff get severance pay the intention is to fill these roles by deploying other employees.
But Unison's regional organiser James Olner said there were already thousands of posts the NHS was trying to fill in the Midlands.
Mr Olner said: "We have had a lot of very worried and anxious members.
"When you are looking at people like medical secretaries who are having to cover multiple consultants, it's a worry.
"Talking to members on the ground in Derby they are already having to pick up extra work to cover for people who are not in post, so ultimately it is going to have an effect"
Mr Olner said fellow union members had concerns about the development
Non-clinical roles include those in finance and HR along with administrators, secretaries and assistants.
The NHS said applying for the scheme was voluntary and each resignation needed to be approved by a panel that would assess the impact on the medical service provided.
In March 2024, the hospital trust reported an annual deficit of £24.9m up to January 2024 - £20.3m more than expected.
The MARS scheme is used throughout the NHS and was last offered at the Royal Derby Hospital in 2019.
At that point there were 50 applications , of which nine were approved.
Amanda Rawlings, executive chief people officer at the hospital, said careful consideration would be given before any resignations were approved.
She said: “The NHS cannot run without our valued non-clinical colleagues, and while applications are put forward by staff themselves, individual cases will only be accepted where there is no impact on the quality of service for our patients and any impact on the workload of other colleagues has been carefully considered.
“This is not a redundancy scheme. This national process gives us more flexibility, working alongside our staff, to make changes to how we work to improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness - a responsibility we take very seriously as a large NHS trust.”
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