30 jobs set to be privatised in two Buckinghamshire NHS hospitals

30 Bucks hospital jobs to be privatised as firm chaired by NHS boss’ wife to get new contract

The jobs of around 30 NHS staff across Wycombe Hospital and Stoke Mandeville Hospital are set to be privatised under a plan that health chiefs claim will cut costs and improve services for patients.

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, whose chief executive is Neil Macdonald, plans to give the estimated £8 million contract for urgent care and out of hours services to FedBucks, a private company chaired by his wife Dr Penny Macdonald.

The NHS workers affected by the move have privately expressed concerns about the conflict of interest and the fact that they will end up working for a private company once their roles are outsourced.

One staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): "They are going to give us to FedBucks.

"They are going to farm us out of the NHS and enforce the nurses who want to remain NHS nurses to work for FedBucks."

However, the Trust has stressed that FedBucks is a ‘not-for-profit’ firm that is already ‘embedded’ within Buckinghamshire’s health services and that the firm’s likely new contract is 'not about privatising the NHS'.

It also said it had taken legal advice regarding the Macdonalds and was 'satisfied' that the conflict of interest involving the couple had been declared and was being managed in the proper way.

But the Trust’s tendering of a contract for services at Wycombe and Stoke Mandeville has been condemned by Unison.

In a letter to NHS bosses earlier this month, the trade union urged them to keep Buckinghamshire’s services 'in-house'.

The letter read: "All of the minor injuries staff are passionate about working for the NHS and want to keep working for Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.

"They don’t want to be outsourced to a private company. So, we are asking for this service to remain under the Trust and not outsourced."

FedBucks, a federation of 47 GP practices, has officially only been identified as the Trust’s 'preferred provider' and has not yet been awarded the contract.

However, in private communications with staff seen by the LDRS, NHS managers have said they expect and want the contract to be given to the firm, which specialises in providing primary care, but that the Trust still has to go through the proper tendering process.

Currently, FedBucks and the Trust jointly run out of hours services and urgent treatment centres, but with no long-term contract in place, this mixed model of service provision creates several difficulties, according to the Trust.

Difficulties include delivering good quality care for patients, especially at Stoke Mandeville, as well as a heavy reliance on agency and locum staff, an inability to reduce costs, and a difficulty to build and grow 'one team' across both hospitals.

The Trust said the number of staff to be transferred to the new contract holder is likely to be 30, but that it could not say exactly as it was still in the middle of the procurement process.

It also said the figure of £8 million could not be confirmed during the current 'standstill period', when contract negotiations had not started.

One of the main fears expressed by staff was that the contract, which is set to run from November until March 2026, could see them out of a job in the future.

Staff are concerned that because they are effectively being 'forced out of the NHS' into a third party, the chosen company could bring in new staff to replace them, could lose the contract to another provider or could change the terms of their employment.

One told the LDRS: "They can say to you, 'now we need you to do nights', and although you say you don’t do nights, ‘it is a requirement of this role."

"So, they can make those changes and can make it very difficult for you to say no if you plan to stay or enforce you to leave."

This was also mentioned in Unison’s letter, which read: "In reality, the provider could after a year, or in fact at any time, claim economic, technical or organisational reasons, to change their terms and conditions. Something the staff would be unlikely to face in their current NHS roles."

NHS bosses have told staff that this kind of thing would not happen as the contract would be in line with the 'strict' TUPE regulations, which are supposed to protect workers’ rights when they are transferred to a new employer.

In a statement, the Trust said: "In line with national guidance, we are looking for an expert in primary care to bring under one team our two urgent treatment centres, as well as our out of hours service.

"This will enable us to provide the best possible 24/7 urgent care for our patients to complement our acute and community services."

It added: "The Board is satisfied that the correct procedures regarding managing conflicts of interest have been followed, including a legal review undertaken in 2018 when Mr Macdonald became CEO to advise how Mr Macdonald and the board should manage this potential conflict of interest.

"This information is available on the Trust website. Mr Macdonald was not in attendance when the Trust Board took the decision to outsource the provision of its 24/7 primary care services."