NHS change of hours?

aife wrote: »

I agree you should contact HR - I would assume that is what your opposite number did in the first place no she was just offered more hours when the department got the budget for a full time staff member
It's not unreasonable for her to have done that , but what i don't understand is this - you say this person often has nothing to do but your site is often short and has to borrow staff . Why isn't the other person being asked to help out at your site ? Sounds like very poor managementat the moment she's doing paperwork meant for another department. Before the boss went off sick she would cover the days that I was off at my site but when the boss disappeared she got sent over less and less and now when we call for cover (even when we know the other department is empty) we are told there is no one to spare, the other site who send cover over have complained before but get nowhere. The nurse at site B doesn't send anyone anywhere to cover but expects cover on days where there are no clinics if one of her team calls in sick
Can you raise this in supervision ? I don't know, it's well known that the two nurses who have been left to manage the department can't even be in the same room as each other and I think even the lead has washed her hands of them. I get the impression everyone is just waiting until the boss returns but that keeps getting put back due to her recovery not going to plan. Unfortunate we are now at critical staffing levels so there are to be several vacancies filled, one at my band and a few lower and it's been decided that these two are to do it, somehow
Does your Trust have one of those schemes where staff are invited to suggest efficiency savings ?no
Whatever you decide you need to act quickly , before they get to the stage of interviewing people , or the post will be filled and I suspect you'll end up feeling resentful

The post isn't being advertised yet, if it goes up before the union get back to me I'll apply and then withdraw if it's as simple as changing my contract.

It's completely informal, she simply won't send my counterpart over even though it was always the arrangement when the SCN was around. Basically no one wants to tread on charge nurse Bs toes. T

So to update:

Everything was put on the back burner due to some big changes to our work load. Basically we got a new consultant in who arrived to find ridiculous waiting lists and clinics so full that no one was getting breaks. She wanted more clinic time and it was decided she could have it at site B. Well this caused mayhem.

Meanwhile i was asking for updates on the hours and kept getting fobbed off though I was told I would be expected to work at site B while training the new me. Without a peep to anyone the full time job appeared on our job board last week along with a couple at the lower band that we've been trying to fill for months. I emailed CN B and asked her if she would consider having me work across both sites and she never got back to me.

CN A has been "off" with me for a bit, but a lot of staff are saying the same. I don't know if there are politics at play somewhere but the nurses were told that we would have a new nurse led initiative starting soon but no one told me or the rest of the AHP/auxiliary staff. CN A has been milking me for knowledge on a machine I used in community that we have in the hospital, the team use it for 2 functions but it can perform 8 and some of those functions would be critical to this new clinic but I'm the only person who knows how they work. Why she hasn't just said "oh we want a clinic to do X, can you show me how to work that machine because I want it to do Y and Z for a new clinic" I don't know.

I've decided I'm fed up being paid peanuts and expected to work flexible days at short notice doing tasks miles above my pay grade (these are skills that a qualified optom has but I'm not an optom at work due to my disabilities). I think they quite like having an optom for the price of a support worker and don't want to change that. My skills as an optom wouldn't be nearly as useful at our sister hospital.

I've just applied for the job at the other site and I'm getting so busy and so overworked that of course I'll look at that machine and show the nurses X but first I need to nip to the pharmacy then call back someone from earlier and oh look the volunteer is here with her low vision display and I have a huge list of people who want me to discuss their cases with her.

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

GlasweJen - are you saying that you are qualified to work as an optometrist(?) but are unable to fulfil that role because of a disability that you have? And that you are employed in some sort of support role or admin function?

Yes I'm a qualified optometrist and worked in the private sector/community practice, I suffered a head injury (I have seizures) and can no longer properly focus my eyes when using a ophthalmoscope or retinoscope which is a huge part of an optometrists job. I hate sales so I got a job in the NHS doing department admin and basic tasks like checling visual acuities and setting up tests but the longer I've been there the more I'm being asked to do optom things like calibrate equipment, teach nurses to use specialist equipment, train the auxiliaries and things that are usually done at a much higher band than mine.

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

Sounds like the management of the department is a bit of a mess(?).


You mention a new consultant. Is it possible that she will be able to shake up some of the problems between sites A and B? (In my experience some consultants are up for this, but others couldn't care less).

That's a bit of an understatement, a lot of things were left on the back burner while the old SCN geared down for retirement then the new SCN started and left almost immediately on the sick. The doctors don't get involved leaving all the running to the nurses but with a huge chunk missing (the SCN) nothing is being negotiated or dealt with properly. If anything the doctors are taking advantage of the SCN being unavailable to push through actions like nurse led initiatives so doctors are seeing less patients but waiting lists are kept low and the nurses on the ground have more and more work with not much training or support.

We have this one new consultant but we are desperately trying to recruit more, most jump ship to the cities (I don't work near where I am from) and my health board has a reputation for the job being difficult due to staffing issues and ongoing funding problems.

They've tried poaching consultants from Edinburgh and Glasgow but no one will touch us with a barge pole and it really needs someone with a giant set of balls to come in and sort the mess out.

I'd love to work closer to "home" and I think after this that's what I'm going to try and do.