Unite slams laboratory cuts
Tuesday 03 July 2012
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EmailUnite today slammed proposals to significantly cut jobs at pathology laboratories across Norfolk.
The public-sector union hit out at the scheme that would see routine work transferred from Queen Elizabeth hospital in King's Lynn and the James Paget hospital in Great Yarmouth to existing facilities at Norfolk and Norwich university hospital in Norwich.
Norfolk's NHS trusts have been forced to consider merging services to drive through 20 per cent cuts.
Currently routine tests in King's Lynn and Yarmouth are done locally but the entire service would be transferred to Norwich with only emergency and hospital tests carried out locally.
And Unite warned that more services are at risk as the scheme is being mirrored across the whole of eastern England.
Unite regional officer Mark Robinson said: "The proposal to cut these highly skilled jobs and create 'super labs' will lead to a poorer service to patients and wasted NHS resources in funding redundancy payments to the affected staff."
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