Trust chief's comments an insult to workers at county hospitals

UNISON members are outraged by comments made by United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust deputy chief executive Dawne Bloodworth in the Echo of January 24.

Staff working at Lincolnshire Hospitals have contacted Unison as they are unhappy with Dawne's statement that if the trust doesn't achieve foundation status then it will be seen as a failing organisation.

Unison members view this as an offensive insult to staff as they believe they are working very hard to deliver a high standard of patient care, and these detremental comments make staff feel their contribution has little value.

There has been a lot of ill-founded rumour about the trust being taken over by another should it not be successful in achieving foundation status. This is an unsupported statement as Unison can demonstrate there is no evidence this is a likely outcome. In fact, Unison is aware of other trusts in the East Midlands which have developed more successfully as a result of not achieving foundation status in 2008.

Unison is seriously concerned that the Lincolnshire Health Scrutiny Committee believes the bid for foundation status to be a "fait accompli".

A public consultation needs to be meaningful and the trust must be driven by the needs of patients which can only be achieved by listening to the concerns of the staff.

Unison believes foundation trusts will lead to increased inequalities between NHS services and the extension of charging.

We reject the Government's argument that they are needed to increase local accountability and consider their governance arrangements to be flawed.

ADRIAN MORGAN Area organiser, Unison