{"id":16918,"date":"2019-01-03T16:21:29","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T16:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=16918"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:57:49","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:57:49","slug":"privatisation-blood-samples-kent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=16918","title":{"rendered":"Patient safety threat"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A New Year campaign has been launched by Unite to stop the pathology services in Kent being outsourced to a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098profit hungry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 private company.<\/p>\n

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Unite, which has 100,000 members in the health service, is concerned that such a move could mean an erosion of pathology services (which analyses blood and human tissue samples) with an adverse impact on patient safety.<\/p>\n

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Alarm bells started ringing before Christmas when Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Trust published the range of options which include the possible takeover of the pathology services by a commercial company.<\/p>\n

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The background is that all pathology services across England will need to consolidate into just 29 networks, which means that the whole of Kent will have one pathology services provider.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Kent public needs to be fully aware of the possibility of the pathology service being turned into a cash cow for a profit hungry private company,” said Unite regional officer Kathy Walters.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBiomedical scientists analyse blood samples and human tissue for patients who could have life-threatening conditions, so it is vital that there should be no erosion of standards.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis proposed move is compounded by the lack of trained biomedical scientists; recruitment and retention problems; old and outdated equipment; and inadequate IT systems,” she added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite is wholly opposed to outsourcing of NHS jobs and services and will campaign hard against such a flawed option.\u00c2\u00a0We are also against any attempt to downgrade staff; and reduce pay and terms and conditions to fund this misguided reorganisation.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNHS Improvement (NHSI), responsible for overseeing NHS trusts, has said that the changes nationally to pathology services should absolutely not be about saving money, but should be about quality and patient safety.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNHS bosses in Kent should take serious note of the parameters that NHSI has set out for the reconfiguration of pathology services across England.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur biomedical scientist members, many of whom are registered with their professional body,\u00c2\u00a0 the Health & Care Professions Council, have a professional duty to raise concerns about patient safety \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and will do so, if the need arises.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe will not sit idly by while yet another blatant privatisation, which is not in the interests of the people of Kent, moves to the next stage in 2019.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A New Year campaign has been launched by Unite to stop the pathology services in Kent being outsourced to a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098profit hungry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 private company.   Unite, which has 100,000 members in the health service, is concerned that such a move could mean an erosion of pathology services (which analyses blood and human tissue samples) with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16919,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[81,1077,252],"wps_subtitle":"Privatisation threat to NHS blood samples in Kent could \u00e2\u20ac\u0098endanger patient safety\u00e2\u20ac\u2122","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16918"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16918"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25653,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16918\/revisions\/25653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}