London Bangla A Force for the community…
ALL NHS worker were “heroes” during the Covid pandemic – and we stood on our doorsteps and clapped to prove it. Among the heroic teams were the staff who dealt with infection control.
These workers dive in to parts of a hospital that are at risk from infection and perform not just “deep” but “ultra” cleans to prevent infection and disease spreading to other parts of the hospital – and other parts of the population. At Guy’s & St Thomas’s, they are known as the “Rapid Response Team”.
This is an important job, but the skills needed to do it are often under-rated, and the dedication needed to do the job properly is often overlooked by local managements. Infection control workers are among the lowest paid in the NHS – and the majority of them are from the Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities.
Infection cleaning staff at Guys and St Thomas’s NHS Trust have been asking management to improve their working conditions. The concerns they have raised include:
•there are no adequate rest areas at Guys hospital
•the rest areas at St Thomas’s have no ventilation
•facilities for staff to wash after work are inadequate
•there is a lack of liaison with the workers’ union, Unite, over the use of harmful chemicals
•management use temporary “bank” staff instead of hiring staff on permanent contracts and training them.
The staff had already called off planned strike action so that talks could take place, but nothing has been resolved. Staff will therefore take five days of new strike action, beginning on Monday, 26th February.
Unite’s General Secretary, Sharon Graham, said that the Trust was treating the Rapid Response Team with disdain. “For these workers to not be able to clean themselves properly after finishing work or to have humane conditions to rest in is a disgrace.”
Although this Trust is in South London, problems at these hospitals could see their patients having to be transferred to East London hospitals – putting a strain on our own stretched resources. And ideas often spread between Trusts: we don’t want to see any East London hospitals cutting corners with infection control, or with other services.
●Guy’s & St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust operates under the slogan “putting patients at the heart of what we do”. The “Chairman” of the Trust, Charles Alexander, is stepping down – but there’s still time to drop him a quick email asking him to make that slogan a reality by supporting the needs of the Rapid Response Team. However, like many public sector organisations, the Trust is very coy about giving out email contact details. We suggest that you email complaints2@gstt.nhs.uk.
You can also help by raising awareness of the Rapid Response Team’s dispute: post a link to this article on your social media.
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