07.01.14
Redundancy risk for 500 NHS Direct employees
Hundreds of NHS Direct staff are at risk of redundancy, the organisation has announced.
It follows the move to pull out of NHS 111 contracts last year. In October NHS Direct announced that it will close in March 2014.
A spokesperson said: “NHS Direct has today written to around 500 employees, including around 140 nurses, giving them formal notice that they are at risk of redundancy at the end of March.
“The final number of redundancies is likely to be less than this, since we are seeking to mitigate as many redundancies as possible by supporting these staff to find alternative employment within the wider NHS.
“At this stage we do not know what the final number of redundancies will be as it is dependent on several factors including the number of 'at risk' staff who obtain suitable alternative employment elsewhere.”
The largest group at risk were back-office staff, NHS Direct said. The organisation currently employs 700 people, 200 of whom are set to be transferred to patient service jobs with other providers.
Dr Peter Carter, chief executive & general secretary of the RCN, said: “This is sad news indeed for the individuals affected, and could to lead to patients seeing their NHS 111 service stretched even further. After the dismantling of NHS Direct, we’ve been left with a fragmented, localised NHS 111 service that offers uncertainty and inconsistency across many parts of the country.”
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