The Future of the Fulbourn Laundry (NHS)

Lead Officer: Martin Booth

CLOSED

Laundry to be closed down

March 2008

Unfortuntaly despite hard work from the members and UNISON Branch officers Addenbrooke's Hospital will be placing the laundry out to Tender. This was decided a a Trust Board of Governers where despite writing to the Cheif Executive UNISON was not allowed to present its case in person.

However it is clear that directors had seen the submission, as they have decided that all staff currently employed in the Laundry would be guaranteed a job within the Hospital, and that any successfull tender would be very closely scrutensied and monitored throughout its life.

UNISON will ensure that members get a good choice of jobs with no loss of monies, and any additional training they need - as for the laundry itself, the lead officer has been informed that he will shortly be invited to join the project board, again to ensure that any company securing the contract meets UNISONs minmum standards of reasonable employment behaviour.

UNISON response goes in

February 2008

In a document presented to Trust management UNISON sets out the case for keeping the service in-house and expanding it for use by other NHS organisations, other public sector bodies, and private NHS and care organisations which need the same high standard of laundry service as the NHS.

This would require considerable investment in the short-term, but would reap long-term benefits compared to the year-on-year costs of contracting out the service, the branch says.

Not only that, but the proven high standards of the existing service would be continued with an expanded Addenbrooke's laundry, whereas the standards of a private contractor would be questionable, to say the least.

The UNISON submission reports on a visit to a large hospital laundry operated by the Sunlight company, where there was evidence of:

• infection control problems
• clean linen stored next to dirty areas
• staff paid less than the NHS minimum
• worn out equipment
• much lower standards of quality control than at Addenbrooke's

The findings were dramatically underlined, purely by coincidence, in a report on the same company in the News of the World on February 17th which condemned Sunlight's practices in dealing with NHS laundry.

The full Document can be found in the help files section of our Website, in the organising members section (or type laundry in the search box)

Response Decided

December 2008

At a meeting of members in the Laundry, it was agreed to commision a report from Health Emergency as to the future of the laundry. The members preference was agreed as option 1: retaining an NHS led service.

The report is expected to take around a month to compile, and will be presented to members for ratification at a meeting in the aundry before being signed of the by the Branch Office.

The report will then be presented as the UNISON formal response to the consultation, and will be also made public after the Trust has recieved its copy.

Members Meetings being held

November 2007

As outlined in the campiagn brief, UNISON is meeting with members to discuss the response to the consultation from UNISON and to gather members views on the future of the service.

Trust announces formal consultation over the future of its Laundry Service

November 2007

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (based at Addenbrooke’s Hospital) has launched a consultation on the future of its currently in-house laundry.

This was launched formally on the 26th November (2007) at a meeting with the affected staff where UNISON and UNITE representatives were invited to attend.

The background to the consultation is the need to replace/ upgrade the current facility with a new larger facility to cope with the increased demands of the local NHS.

The Trust has proposed 2 options:

Option 1: New NHS facility (to include)

• Larger premises

• New location

• New equipment

• Efficiency Modelling

Option 2: Contract out the service

UNISON will be arranging a series of meetings with members in the Laundry to discuss what action they would like the Branch to take

Article added 2010-08-24 13:02:52