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June 2007
Blood workers see red
The protests, involving the trade unions Unite, Unison, RCN and the GMB, took place on Friday, 15 June. The NHSBT is part of the UK's National Health Service.
Workers fear that plans to cut more than 600 jobs and axe seven out of ten processing sites will put lives at risk and place enormous strain on the workers at the three remaining site, who will have to cope with the demand from hospitals across England and Wales.
Owen Granfield, a regional officer of the Unite (Amicus section) trade union, said:
“These proposals mean compulsory redundancy for many of the National Blood Service’s skilled scientists and technicians. As well as the cuts in the testing and processing of donated blood there are also cuts and redundancies for staff dealing with rare platelet antibodies, red cell investigations and reagent production. We cannot stand by and see the service cut to meet financial targets.
“The NHS and the nation has invested millions in training these hundreds of technical and scientific staff and now proposes to just dispose of them.”
UNISON Senior National Officer Bill Campbell added:
“The lives of vulnerable patients will be put at risk if these closures go ahead. Over the past months our members working in the blood service have voiced very real concerns over the impact of these damaging cuts and closures. Despite putting forward robust arguments and making constructive counter proposals, management has not budged an inch on the plan.
“The time for talking is rapidly coming to an end. Unless we see some serious proposals from management, we will be left with no alternative but to consider a ballot for strike action.
“Today's lunchtime demonstrations reflect the deep anger among staff who are already stretched to the limit. The National Blood Service should look again at these proposals and make their decisions on what will help to save the most lives - not what will save the most money. “
As a result of the closures the service will lose the flexibility and responsiveness to short-term fluctuations in demand that local processing centres provide. In addition the closures will mean blood products with a very short shelf life will have to be moved long distances from collection sites to processing centres and back again to issuing centres, leaving supply dependent on highly congested and unreliable road networks.
The cuts will leave massive holes in the coverage of processing centres, particularly in the Midlands and North East. Depending on just three centres will also put patients in jeopardy in the event of an emergency situation such as a terrorist attack or in case of flood, fire or pandemic in any one of these huge urban centres.
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Life-saving service: an NHSBT blood lorry |
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