There are some NHS Trusts which are neat and tidy and all pretty much on one site – and there are others, like mine, that have different sites spread over a wide geographical area. When you’ve got to move between sites, as many staff and patients do, having a reliable transport service is vital.
At East Lancs, the sites are miles apart and there isn’t a public transport alternative. Instead, we’ve had a shuttle bus service, provided by the Trust, for years and it’s been a godsend. Like all Trusts, ours is constantly looking to save money, but even so it was a shock to hear last June that they were thinking of getting rid of the shuttle bus. It was particularly shocking as these discussions had begun without any consultation or thoughts for an alternative in place.
As a staffside rep, and knowing how important the bus service is, not just to staff but to patients too, I wasn’t prepared to sit back and let it happen. The staffside got involved and this let to the setting up of a transport group and started looking at ways in which we could keep the service. Between June and November, we worked together, all different unions, with the RCM right in the centre, to come up with some options, and to make sure that staff voices were heard.
We thought all was lost when, in December, the Trust announced that the service would be pulled entirely from the following April. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’ve got a determined streak, and that definitely came to the fore when I heard this! Working together, the unions got local MPs and Councillors involved and got a petition going. It’s fair to say we, and the voices of the local community, made quite the noise.
And it was that noise that was heard by a local company, who have offered to replace the shuttle bus with a paid-for service, running Monday to Friday. It’s not perfect, and we’re working hard to mitigate the impact on staff working at weekends, but it’s a start.
This was a genuine joint effort by all the staffside unions. We all listened to our members and we pooled our resources to get a positive result. We worked together for the benefit of so many people. Some of them are our members, some are members of other unions, but all of them are our colleagues. And that to me is the value of being part of a union. Together we can get so much more done.
