Today in 1667 - First documented human blood transfusion

The first fully-documented human blood transfusion was administered by Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys, eminent physician to King Louis XIV of France, on June 15, 1667. He transfused the blood of a sheep into a 15-year old boy, who recovered. Denys performed another transfusion into a labourer, who also survived. Both instances were likely due to the small amount of blood that was actually transfused into these people. This allowed them to withstand the allergic reaction.

Read the Wikipedia entry

World Blood Donor Day - June 14th 2009

It's World Blood Donor Day, an annual day around the globe to celebrate the amazing gift of life that blood donation and transfusion gives to thousands of people every day, and especially to promote volunteer blood donation (as opposed to paid donors), as this ensures the safest supply of blood.

'If you call them, they will come...'

Spain


Italy


Canada


Testing a donor's blood pre-donation for haemoglobin levels in the olden days



'That wasn't so bad...'









This is what happens to your blood



In the past it used to be stored in glass jars, as these old Red Cross pictures show





The finished product



Pure human solidarity



Today and every day 1,700 people in the UK will receive a blood transfusion

Want to learn more? Click these links:

Boiiiinnng! Donor services boss jumps for pastures greener

In 2008 NHS Blood & transplant took on a new Director of Blood Donation, Andy Young. Here's Andy.



Andy's previous experience was as a top boss at the O2 Arena. Here's the O2 Arena.



This certainly rose a few eyebrows - and sneers - among the writers of this blog. It is a worrying sign when NHSBT management think that a great candidate for a director is one from the commercial sector, with no experience of working in the Blood Service or even the NHS. What's more the O2 Arena is hardly one of the all-time great successes of the business world...

All signs pointed to yet another clueless chief. Sighs and headshakes all round from staff.

At the start of June 2009 the bitter ramblings of even the most cynical staff members have been trumped - just one year after settling into his office, barely time to warm the chill off his leather seat, Andy Young is off to a new, shinier job. Andy obviously favours the 'jack of all trades' approach to his CV, deciding now to try his hand at (or should that be dip his toe into...) the 2012 Olympics. Not exactly the poster boy for continuity!

If Andy Young wants to really make an impact as part of 2012 he's probably best off stepping out from behind the scenes and joining the athletes in the long jump or the high jump.



It's bad enough to have directors brought in from the private sector, where they have honed their skills of brutality and cold-heartedness, and touted as the perfect choice to manage a service based on altruism. But at the very least those working in the upper echelons of NHSBT need to have a passing interest in or concern for blood donation and transfusion. Andy Young's selfish desertion demonstrates that he had nothing of the sort. He must have been idly flicking through the job pages for a few months at least. Or was it ever anything more to him than a stop gap?

Andy Young welcomes prospective NHSBT director hopefuls via Hays management recruitment agency. Probably written by his secretary...

Anyone who felt the burning passion that some of us feel for the work we do would not be able to simply walk out the door at the whiff of something bigger and better in the shallow way that he has done.

Money well spent, bosses?

Birmingham Processing Lab 1965 - 2009

A tribute. Thousands of lives were saved by blood products from this lab. Colleagues and hospitals will feel the loss.

Please click on photos for large version






These are the centrifuges that spun blood at high speed to separate out the different types of cells. Now they are still.


This row of now-idle Compomat machines pressed the blood after it was spun to push the plasma into a separate bag from the red cells.




Industrial thermogenesis machine which froze plasma to below -40 degrees centigrade.










Lab technicians no more.


Morale is bad amongst those left at Birmingham centre.

Birmingham Processing closure solidarity protest

These pictures are of the staff of Birmingham Blood Centre, from the labs and from transport, protesting to show solidarity and anger on the day that Processing was transferred down to Filton, Bristol. 3rd April 2009.

Click on photos for large version

Health and safety reps beat bosses' no chairs rule

The unpopular OTP ('Operational Transformation Project') working pattern imposed clunkily by NHSBT management on blood collection teams a few years ago has many flaws according to donor carer staff. One which caused great health concern, with a increasing rise in occupational health referrals, was the attempted removal of chairs for staff from donor sessions.





Union health and safety reps from across the staffside worked together and fought hard against this ruling, using the law as a weapon. A great coup was achieved by getting in the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) to carry out an inspection. The HSE is an under-funded body that rarely visits workplaces.

The HSE report released in March this year fully backed up what health and safety reps had been arguing. Following this blow to their authority management had no choice, in the light of hard evidence, but to accept the findings of the HSE's report and replace chairs. This is a fantastic victory achieved by union reps that will benefit collection teams everywhere.

Health and safety law can be a valuable tool for workers. Over the years union activists have pushed to make it rule in our favour. The fight to improve working conditions goes on constantly. At the extreme end unsafe working can kill and make people seriously ill. Each year more people die through their work than from war.

The ILO (UN International Labour Organisation) estimates that 337 million accidents occur on the job annually, while the number of people suffering from work-related diseases is close to 2 million. These mistakes amount to approximately 2.3 million deaths each year, with 650,000 of them due to hazardous substances – double the number of a few years ago.

Don't forget Workers Memorial Day, 28th April every year across the world. It is a day to remember those who have been killed by work, but also to fight for better health and safety in the present, as reps in NHSBT have been doing.

Union official's last minute hot air

Last week (26/03/09) the Evening Mail ran this story covering the closure of Birmingham's blood processing, quality monitoring and NAT labs. Tomorrow will be their final day.

Please click for a larger readable version.



Read the story online here.

It is based on a press release from full time Unite officials. This blog has objections from the very first sentence which says: 'Union leaders are trying to halt controversial plans...'.

There can be no doubt that throughout this entire campaign 100% of the energy, sweat, tears and sleepless nights have been spent by unpaid union stewards, active members and their workmates. In fact there are quite a few well-remembered instances of union leaders and officials discouraging and obstructing NBS workers' campaigning efforts.

That is not to say that these officials have not been part of active struggles earlier in their lives, but in the case of the fight against NBS restructuring it is not true to say that they were part of it other than to make vague grand rhetorical statements for press releases.

Now this blog steps down from its soapbox to accept that the choice of wording in the first sentence was made by the journo. The real issue is - what good are statements like these after it is too late to save the Brum blood centre? More of a fight was needed a long time ago. As mentioned above, this was not made easy for us.

Night shifts bad for workers' health - Supercentre runs 24 hours

It was reported in today's news that 37 women in Denmark have won the right to compensation after it was proven that working night shifts long-term was linked to them developing breast cancer.



This link was suspected as long ago as 2001. Read more in a report on the research done into it here.

Cancer is not the only health concern around night working. Humans are not nocturnal (we are diurnal, the opposite of nocturnal). Night shift work is believed to cause disturbed sleep, fatigue and digestive problems. There are possible increased risks of diabetes. Scientific studies have shown that sleep disruption can cause the body to produce less melatonin, an important sleep regulating hormone. And accident rates are significantly higher on the night shift than during the day.

This leaflet informs employers that workers are at more risk of accidents when working at night than during the day.

Knowing this, it is a shameful and dangerous step backwards for National Blood Service bosses to decide to centralise blood processing and reduce the number of regional labs. At these regional labs where local blood collections were received, the processing work could be completed in a day, and the workers stop at 11pm. At the Filton supercentre which replaces them, where all blood for the whole of the Midlands and South-West has to be processed, the work rolls non-stop 24 hours round the clock. Now, as a result of this restructuring, unhealthy night shift working is being inflicted onto more workers. It doesn't seem too much to ask when you work in the NHS, helping to save lives, that your employers won't make choices that could shorten your own!

Do you have to work night shifts? Does a friend or family member? Take care - here are some health tips for shift or night time workers and advice from the Health & Safety Executive.

IWW Blood Service Valentine's Day of Action

On Saturday 14th February 2009 West Midlands IWW held a cavalcade to raise awareness of cuts taking place at the Birmingham blood centre this March.

The IWW is a union with members working in the National Blood Service. They will be affected when the local blood processing lab shuts and transfers its work to a new centralised ‘super-centre’ in Bristol. Staff believe this is a risky plan which could delay urgent specialist blood products from reaching patients in West Midlands hospitals. Around 70 jobs will go with the closure.

The mobile demonstration, including a van with banners, cyclists and cars, set off from close by the soon-to-be-slashed blood centre and passed the Queen Elizabeth hospital and medical school, before making stops at Selly Oak, City and the Children’s hospitals. Road users were made aware of the cuts as the cavalcade travelled around Birmingham’s main arteries. Around 30 protestors wound up the day leafleting the public in New Street outside the donor centre. The blood service depends on the generous donations of the public - many more will need to receive a blood transfusion at some point in their life.

Click on pictures to see bigger version













The campaign has not managed to save Birmingham’s blood processing lab, but on the positive side, opposition to the plans from workers and their supporters has meant that Birmingham will keep its vital red cell crossmatching lab, and in the North and South-East, blood processing centralisation plans were halted completely.

Greetings on International Women's Day

To celebrate International Women's Day today this blog is posting a story that began in September 2006. 84 workers, 82 of them women, making medical equipment in Turkey went on strike for over a year, fighting against gross abuses by their employer Novamed.

Following is a list of some of the abuses as alleged by the woman workers of the union:

* Married woman workers are not allowed to become pregnant without FMC Novamed's approval. Each worker is given a schedule, which specifies during which months they are allowed to become pregnant. If a woman worker becomes pregnant in "breach" of this given schedule, she is terminated without compensation.
* Woman workers are required to get permission from the employer before getting married.
* To "save energy" for their work at the factory, workers are being advised:
- not to accept guests in their own homes when they are off the clock,
- not to communicate or even have sex with their spouses when they are off the clock,
- not to see each other when they are off the clock,
- only to eat and sleep when they are off the clock.
* Workers are treated inhumanely, and continuously humiliated regardless of whether they make a mistake or not.
* Managers and supervisors call their workers to their office and accuse and humiliate them in such a way that there are few workers who come out of these accusation-performances without crying.
* Workers are not allowed to talk to each other during work hours, as well as in the shuttle during their trips from and to work.
* Workers are allowed inside the factory premises after being "sniffed" by their supervisors, because smoking during work hours is forbidden.
* During work hours, there is only a 15-minute break and a 25-minute lunch break. During lunch, instead of food, the factory is serving tea and cookies.
* An average shuttle trip from home to work may take as long as 2 hours because there are not enough shuttles allocated by the factory for the workers.

Read more here.


Picket sign states: "We decide when we give birth"


Novamed women's union poster

At the outset of the battle there was no union at their factory but they got organised with the help of the union Petrol-Is. After 447 hard days striking, up against anti-union tactics by management, but with wide international solidarity, the workers won.

From December 18th 2007:
A three-year initial labour agreement was signed today in Istanbul between Petrol-Is and Novamed that ends a historic strike by 84 of the workers in Mersin, Antalya. The strike, which will stand as a test of courage for fairness and dignity on the job, began on 26 September 2006.

The settlement will bring the 84 strikers, 82 of whom are women, back to the job, and will grant all workers a wage increase of 5% for the first year, and of 4% for the second and third year of the agreement. It also brings a social package that includes a payment for each of two religious holidays in Turkey, as well as productivity and attendance bonuses for workers. All the striking workers will return to work on the 2nd of January 2008.



The agreement was historic as it marked the first trade union inside Antalya, Turkey's 'Free Trade Zone' (an area where sweatshops can operate).

Read about their victory in full.

Novamed is owned by Fresenius Medical Care of Germany. This firm manufactures one of the types of blood bags used by the National Blood Service in this country. Workers in the NBS have a direct connection to these brave and inspiring people.

Fresenius has also been investigated over bribery allegations.
"According to a 2005 UN report, Fresenius Medical Care was one of more than 2,000 firms around the world alleged to have made illicit payments to Saddam Hussein's government to profit from the aid programme."

Read more here.

IWW Valentine's Day Blood Service protest - 14th Feb 2009

On Saturday 14th February the IWW is taking a mobile protest to hospitals around the city, to inform the public and healthworkers about the looming closure of the Birmingham blood processing lab in March. This vital link in the blood supply chain is to be transferred down to Bristol under a centralisation regime, with the loss of around 70 jobs, leaving local hospitals’ blood supply at the mercy of the clogged motorways of the South-West of England.

The IWW, along with other unions and organisations, has campaigned against this dangerous move during the last few years. Unsurprisingly when management proposed these cuts there was the bare minimum of consultation with hospitals and none with the public. Now that the cuts are happening, the least we can do is take the message to the streets and make sure that Birmingham is well informed of exactly what is happening to our public services.

Show some love for the blood service on Valentine’s Day!

• We need cyclists! Lots and lots of cyclists! - To form the body of the convoy behind a large van with banners.
• We also need car drivers who can carry extra protestors. As many as possible.
The protest will meet at Birmingham Uni North gate turning circle, pass the Blood Centre and the QEH/Women’s hospital in Edgbaston, then call at Selly Oak, City, and end up at the Children’s hospital in the city centre.

Meeting points
@ B’ham Uni North Gate (Prichatts Rd) assemble from 11am
@ Selly Oak Hospital (Oak Tree Lane) approx 12 noon – 12.30pm
@ City Hospital (Dudley Road) approx 1.30 pm – 2pm
@ Children’s Hospital (Steelhouse Lane) approx 2.45pm
Finishing in the city centre on foot at 4.30pm

Please put this date into your diaries, and help us build numbers by letting your friends and family, workmates, neighbours and union contacts know about the event. Leaflets and posters are available now. For more info, to confirm attendance, to book a seat as a car passenger, or to get copies of the pre-event leaflet please contact iww.nbs[AT]gmail.com (replace [AT] with @)

Furious letter from Canadian blood service workers union

Last month the Nova Scotia Union of Public & Private Employees (NSUPE) sent a storming letter to the Canadian Blood Service CEO on behalf of their very frustrated members working in blood collection. Their experiences of the high pressure piled onto them as a result of poor management decisions are shared by donor carers this side of the pond.

Click here to read the letter in full and the response from CBS bosses.

'Midwifery Matters' Autumn '08 - article on NBS restructuring

This is an article by Morag Forbes published in the Autumn '08 issue of 'Midwifery Matters'.

Restructuring of Britain’s National Blood Services:
Why we should care, and what we can do!

Author’s note: At first sight, this article may seem “off topic” for Midwifery Matters. I decided to write it after hearing from friends working in the blood service. While their job is different to ours, many of the same themes are emerging – cuts, increasing centralisation, and devaluing of staff. And, as you will see, cuts in the blood service will directly affect the care we offer to women.



What is the NBS? What does it do?

England’s National Blood Service (NBS) is over 60 years old. This specialised service collects, tests and processes blood products. Its local nature is essential – local labs understand the needs of local health services.

What are the restructuring plans?

NBS management plan to close local labs across England, replacing them with “supercentres”. Around 600 jobs (roughly half the NBS workforce) would be lost in the process. NBS staff have not been consulted on their opinions of what would constitute a safe and efficient service structure.

Has there been opposition to the plans?

The plans are widely opposed by unions, city councils, NBS staff, and service users. This prompted a review of the plans. In North and Southeast England, the “supercentre” idea has been abandoned. Some local centres have been saved, or have retained functions that were to be cut.

However, many NBS centres are still threatened. Processing and/or testing labs are to be closed at Leeds, Tooting, Brentwood, Birmingham, Southampton and Plymouth. RCI Reference Labs, which crossmatch blood for rare/reactive blood types, will close in Manchester, Southampton and Cambridge. Many services will be moved to a “supercentre” at Bristol.

These plans still mean at least 600 redundancies in the service.

What about the rest of the UK?

The supercentre plan, discredited, but still rumbling on in the South West has now made its way to Scotland too, with plans to close Glasgow and Edinburgh blood centres in the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service. One ‘super’ facility for the whole of the central belt, would take blood processing away from local communities.

How will this affect healthcare?

NBS staff have severe concerns about the plans’ implications for safe healthcare.

As services become more centralised, blood products must be transported for hundreds of miles, on a potentially unreliable motorway network. Rare blood products may not be available quickly in emergency situations. Longer transport times will mean blood products spend longer in suboptimal storage conditions.

Redundancies in the blood donation service may prove critical, with donation levels already seriously low.

How will this affect maternity care?

All midwives know the importance of speedy access to blood products in emergencies: it may literally be the difference between life and death for a mother or her newborn.

This is especially true for ill babies. Split platelets for newborns are always made to demand, to avoid wastage, and very often wanted in a short time scale. For example, Birmingham Women’s Hospital currently obtains split platelets from a lab within walking distance. Split platelets can be made from adult platelets to be available immediately. If services are centralised to Bristol, Birmingham will have to stock ready-split platelets. These will go in the bin if not used within 4 days (extra travelling time means they lose a day of their 5-day shelf life!). Otherwise, staff will have to phone an order to Bristol, and wait for the appropriate platelets to be sourced, processed and sent along the motorway. It’s easy to see how disastrous this could be.

On a less dramatic level, the next phase of cuts will see the NBS decrease its role in antenatal screening from 2011. This makes no economic sense, when the NBS can perform screening tests at a much lower cost than individual hospitals can. As radical midwives, we may question the routine use of screening. However, for families who choose these services, they should surely be available locally and at minimum cost to the NHS.

What can I do?

- Keep up to date at http://nbs-sos.blogspot.com
- Spread the word to local/national media, other healthcare professionals and service users.
- Ask your city council to pass a resolution opposing the plans. This has already happened in many areas.
- Raise the issue via your local Public and Patient Involvement Forum

'Midwifery Matters' is the magazine of ARM (The Association of Radical Midwives). The magazine is only available to members, but can also be found in some university libraries. Visit ARM's website here, and read more articles from previous issues of MM here.

Minutes from Leeds Scrutiny Committee regarding NBS strategy

Leeds Scrutiny Committee, which examines proposals for changes in public services and resources, recently held a meeting which was attended by union stewards representing the NBS staff, and management and HR representing the directors and their strategy of proposed lab closures.

The Committee was extremely angry at the way that they felt that they had been left out of the consultation process until all the decisions on the future of Leeds blood centre had been made.



You can read the minutes HERE.

Article on restructuring of US transfusion service

NY Times article about reorganisation of the Red Cross blood tranfusion service in North America. Apparently regulators have found that the transfusion service in the USA has numerous problems - one of the causes being that they are too big, and costs of re-organisation are running far in excess of what was predicted...

'No-show Gisela Stuart urged to quit hospital committee'

A recent Birmingham Mail story revealed that Gisela Stuart, Labour MP for Edgbaston (location of Birmingham's blood centre), and also stakeholder governor of Birmingham University Hospital Trust, failed to turn up to any of the Trust governor meetings that were held in the last 12 months.



NBS workers at the Birmingham centre were extremely unsurprised to hear about this. Some members of staff contacted her immediately when the job losses in her constituency were announced in late 2006. Yet rather than properly interrogating the NBS reconfiguration plans as other, more responsible, MPs and councillors chose to do, she was heard on live local radio saying that in an emergency blood would 'just be rushed up in a helicopter'. Staff were amused and intrigued at this mention of the mystery helicopter which hadn't appeared in any strategy budgets, or in fact anywhere outside of Gisela Stuart's head...

So from the outset Gisela Stuart MP seemed to have aligned herself in favour of the closure of a major health facility and workplace in her constituency.

Later, after the reprieve of Birmingham's red cell crossmatching lab was announced, a story appeared in the local paper unhelpfully trumpeting that Gisela Stuart had been heavily involved in securing this victory. This was false on two counts - not only had she played next to no role whatsoever in events, but the 'victory' was a small one and the area was still set to suffer greatly from the proposed closure of the blood processing department.

Many letters have turned up in the local press expressing worry about the Birmingham blood centre being decimated, at the same time as a gigantic new multimillion-pound superhospital is being build right next door, looming over it in fact. Surely a hospital this massive and shiny (set to replace the current University Hospital) needs to have a fully functioning, top class, blood centre on its doorstep - not just a big chiller?

Well, now we know the reason that Gisela Stuart doesn't seem to be concerned about this situation. Because she is not concerned with Birmingham University Hospital at all. Here we see yet another case of an MP pointlessly holding a seat, like some kind of badge of honour, on a decision-making body that they don't care anough about to take part in. That place would be better off given to a long term patient or service user who depends on the hospital for their wellbeing.

New social networking site from the Transplant Trust

The Transplant Trust has launched a new social networking site called thetxspace.com

'thetxspace is for everyone connected with the world of transplantation. Clinicians - Donor families and friends - Patients - Supporters - Carers.

Join the network today!'

Yorkshire Evening Post - 'Fears over plans to move Leeds blood centre'

Published: 25th July 2008
By Katie Baldwin
Health Reporter

Councillors have raised concerns about plans to move services from a blood processing centre in Leeds. The NHS Blood and Transplant Service (NHSBT) wants to scale down the Seacroft centre in Leeds, a move which would affect up to 70 staff.

That could mean blood processing and testing no longer took place in the city.

Leeds City Council's Health Scrutiny Board has now heard evidence from staff at the centre, NHSBT representatives and Leeds Primary Care Trust (PCT).

Board members were annoyed that councillors and Leeds PCT had not been consulted sooner and raised concerns about the impact on Leeds patients.

Scrutiny board chairman Coun Pauleen Grahame (Lab, Cross Gates and Whinmoor) said: "It is vitally important that any changes are properly thought through – after all, lives could be at stake.

"Not only that, but I am very worried about the implications of this closure for the Leeds economy and for the future of Seacroft Hospital.

"The blood treatment centre is a major employer of skilled staff, and it would be a great shame for the city if they were forced to move elsewhere to find work."

You can read the full story and add your comments (please do!) HERE.

NBS SOS benefit party - July 19th

The IWW, a union with members at the National Blood Service, is hosting a fundraising night on 19th July in London, to raise money for the campaign against service cuts.

There will be a fundraising club night organised by JustDefy! for the NBS campaign in Camberwell, south london, on saturday the 19th of July from 11pm. There is a free festival on camberwell green that day too, and we are the afterparty.

Venue is The Redstar, 319 Camberwell Road, Camberwell SE5 0HQ

Price: £5 all night all cash to the campaign

Buses: 36, 436, 171, 185, 12, 35, 45, 40, 42, 68, 468, 148, 176





The night is headlined by legendary underground party DJ Jerome Hill, a techno DJ with the flawless skills of a hip hop spinner, he's played verywhere from Glade to Sao Paulo to Hackney Wick:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=65313308
and his label: http://www.dont-recordings.com/

Dubstep from Louise+1: http://www.myspace.com/louiseplus1

Drum n bass from JNK: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=153482494

Acid techno from Gergl (http://www.serious-business.org.uk/)
and old school hardcore from Metra, who wasn't alive then obviously, but knows what he's doing.

Please come down to support this night if you can, and you can also help by publicising it on your myspace / facebook profile, or your own blog or website, if you have one. Thanks!

WORLD BLOOD DONOR DAY - 14TH JUNE

Today is World Blood Donor Day, an annual event to promote and highlight the amazing and altruistic gift of life which donors give.

Find out more here.

This year's theme is 'Many happy returns', a title chosen to remind us that it is important for donors to give not just once, but regularly, in order to maintain safe stock levels for our hospitals.

Find out about how and where you can donate near you at the National Blood Service website.

Below is the text from a new leaflet promoting both the Save Our Blood Service campaign and the BloodBan campaign.


An Injury to One is an Injury to All

Blood links all of us from donor to patient

It’s generally believed that we live in a selfish, even cruel, world. But humans constantly challenge this view with amazingly generous, social and altruistic behaviour.

Giving blood is pure human solidarity. A patient receiving a transfusion can look up at the pack of red cells feeding into their body and know that someone wanted them to live, without knowing who they are. Blood is a vital fluid that is common to us all.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Less than 5% of the eligible population give blood, and a lot of money is spent on adverts to recruit donors. At present, men who have sex with men are excluded from donating blood. The current opinion of NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is that blood from a sexually active gay man may be more likely to carry infections than blood from a straight person. They claim that screening for disease would be too expensive, although they already screen all blood from heterosexuals, where STDs are on the rise.

Logically if gay men could donate, the donor pool would be instantly increased and less would need to be spent on advertising.

Pressure from the BloodBan campaign and from health workers through their unions has caused NHSBT decision makers to agree to incorporate a review of screening policy as one of the priorities under an equality impact assessment to be rolled out across NHSBT in the coming year.

Find out more at: www.bloodban.co.uk

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NHSBT is making cuts to our blood service nationally. A money-driven restructuring plan is slashing the number of labs which test, filter and process blood. This is wasting the skills of 100s of technicians and scientists who are losing their jobs, and means that hospitals’ blood supply is further away, a huge risk in case of emergencies.

Centralisation like this is often a prelude to privatisation. We all know the decline in care which the private sector brings when it gets its fangs into the NHS. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that a purely voluntary blood service, free from profit, is the safest way to avoid infection. We share a free blood service with less than 25% of the world’s countries – we need to protect it as any one of us could need a transfusion to save our life.

Save Our Blood Service has been fighting cuts in NHSBT. We think that there is a chain of solidarity from the blood donor, to the healthcare workers, right through to the patient receiving the gift of life. We want all of these people to have a greater say in our health service. If you believe the same, we want to hear from you.

To find out more email: nbs.sos@gmail.com or visit: www.nbs-sos.blogspot.com

Demonstration! Watford, Friday 11th April

STOP SLASHING THE BLOOD SERVICE!

Protest at the NBS bosses' HQ

Friday 11th April 2008

The bosses at the National Blood Service want to close labs
and slash 600 jobs in the NBS. Now they are hiding the
findings of a review into whether or not this is safe to do.
Join us at this protest to demand the review findings are
fully revealed, before it's too late to stop these dangerous
cuts.





Assembly point:

Watford Junction Station, 12pm


Demonstration supported by:
• Midlands Network of Health Campaigns
• Bloodban (www.bloodban.co.uk)
• Stop Haringey Health Cuts Coalition
• The Healthworkers Union (IWW-IU 610)
• Hackney Solidarity Network

More blood on the letters page

(Birmingham Mail, April 3rd 2008)

Keep on writing to your local papers about the NBS cuts, and keep sending the clippings into this blog at this address:

nbs.sos[AT]gmail.com
(replace [AT] with @)

Birmingham keeps the pressure on

Photos sent in of an awareness-raising street stall held last weekend in Birmingham by staff and their friends and supporters (click for large version).











Keep up the good work out there - many people, including donors and recipients of blood transfusions, are still unaware of the proposed restructuring of our service. If you have any photos like this of street stalls or protests from your area then send them into the campaign email address:

nbs.sos[AT]gmail.com
(replace [AT] with @)

Joint unions' statement in response to the NBS strategy review

As a result of a national staffside meeting on Monday 25th February 2008, it was voted to issue the following statement.

JOINT UNIONS’ STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO THE NBS STRATEGY REVIEW

The NBS Trade Unions receive with great caution the outcomes of the review and revision of the announced National Strategy. At this point we cannot accept the proposed wholesale closures of laboratories and with regard to the 240 job losses in Services to Donors, the staff side will not support any further reductions in frontline staff. We were given the assurance that supporting evidence by McKinseys would be made available following the review in support of the new and revised strategy. We believe that evidence should be made available as we still have grave reservations as to the ability of the proposals to deliver a high-quality service nationally.

We therefore continue to OPPOSE the NBS intention to withdraw some specialist service provision to the NHS, ensuing lab closures and reduction of staff numbers on the frontline of donor collection teams. We will support our local groups and branches who mount local campaigns in defence of service provision to patients and donors alike and in defence of their jobs.

Outcome of the Blood Service strategic review

The review of the NBS restructuring strategy is now complete and these are the outcomes.

The outcry from hospitals, staff and the public at the dangerous and stupid proposals has meant that in the north and south-east, the board have been forced to scrap the idea of supercentres. One excellent victory that we can claim is that the Newcastle centre is now to remain fully open, and Sheffield also keeps many more functions.



But the axe still hangs over essential labs at centres across the country.

From the north and south-east of England, processing labs are still earmarked for closure at Leeds and Tooting, and testing labs are planned to be shut at Brentwood, Leeds and Tooting.

NBS RCI reference labs, which crossmatch blood for patients with rare or reactive blood types, are critical to have closely linked with hospitals in the area. Despite this, NBS directors still think that they can get away with closing RCI labs in Manchester, Southampton, Cambridge, to cut costs.

The NBS has also taken advice that it should consider ending its role in antenatal screening by 2011. This will cost more jobs, and will eventually cost the wider NHS as well. The NBS is able to do this testing at a fraction of what it costs hospitals to do it themselves. If they in fact extended their involvement in antenatal screening, they could create more income for NHS Blood and Transplant, as well as lightening the load on hospital budgets. It seems the word foresight is missing from the NBS management dictionary.

Interestingly the revised proposed strategy will cost a predicted 600 jobs, in addition to those slashed in the midlands and south-west consolidation. Before the review the figure of 600 applied to job losses in total across the whole country. It should also be noted that bosses want to cut more jobs in the extremely understaffed collection teams - at a time when collected donations are way below target.

Meanwhile in the midlands and south-west zone, directors are desperately clinging to the supercentre model, reluctant to face the humiliation of abandoning their flagship Filton supercentre venture. This was purposely left out of the review as bosses knew McKinsey & Co. would advise against such a drastic cut, as has been proven in the other two regions. Large processing labs from Birmingham, Southampton and Plymouth are still destined to be packed off to this white elephant. Directors also want to inexplicably uproot donor typing and patient screening from Colindale, and the national Cord Blood Bank from Edgware, to Filton in Bristol. The only apparent reason for this is an attempt to further justify that the shiny hangar is not going to be a terrible waste of resources.

Now that the factual support is crumbling, we have to push on campaigning against centralisation. No decision on the fate of our health services should ever be made based on keeping someone’s CV unsoiled.

Thanks to all campaign supporters for your valuable help so far - we’re getting there, and reason is on our side - let’s keep on fighting!

Birmingham solidarity demo - 31st January

Here are some pictures (click for larger version) sent in of the solidarity demonstration held in support of the long-serving lifesavers of the Birmingham donor testing lab who were made 'redundant' on 31st January, as their work was shipped off to the overloaded Bristol centre.

Birmingham NBS staff are proud to call you colleagues and friends.













See more here

Info coming very soon on the outcome of the strategic review!

Campaign update

The strategic review of the centralisation proposals is now complete, and NHSBT management will announce their intentions on February 1st.

In recent weeks, city councils have added to the pressure in opposition by coming out against the plans to close local processing and testing labs. In Birmingham a petition signed by over 7000 angry local residents was handed into the leader of the council. Even more local authorities have declared that if the review does not reconsider the cuts, they too will fight the proposals.

When parliament returned after the Christmas break this year, supporters of the campaign joined forces to greet Health Secretary Alan Johnson (ultimately responsible for decisions relating to the NHS) with a huge number of phone calls and emails protesting the cuts. With a high volume of calls on this issue, from not only this country, but as far afield as the US, Canada, and Poland, there could be no mistake that this issue matters to the public.



Meanwhile we have seen more evidence of why only 3 centres is too risky to accept, as a blood van was caught up in an accident on a motorway in the West Country:

Read the story here.

The support campaign is growing massively via the networking site facebook. The links below take you to various ways to keep informed of campaign news, and help to spread the word about the threatened cuts and the fight to stop them.

Save Our Blood Service facebook group (nearly 1000 members - please join and invite your friends)

Save Our NBS facebook profile (add as a friend)

Save Our National Blood Service ‘Cause’ application (please join and help to recruit)

Finally here is some satire which was written by one of the campaign’s supporters - a spoof interview with Fred Fullogarbage, chairman of a new conglomerate formed after a merger between our National Blood Service and the crashed bank Northern Rock…

A glimpse of the future?

Liverpool city council condemns cuts programme

Liverpool City Council has just adopted the following resolution over the closure of the Liverpool Blood Centre:-

"That this Council deplores the proposal to drastically reduce the
number of regional blood centres from 12 to 3 so called super centres
to serve the entire country. Council also deplores the inadequate
"consultation" which has taken place over this ill advised and
damaging proposal. Council condemns the potential significant loss of
skilled jobs and reduction in workforce size which will result if this
proceeds unchanged. Council also notes that this will severely stretch
the current close working relationships between the regional centres
and local hospitals.

Council recalls that the previous rationalisation of the National
Blood Service by the Tory Government in the 1990s was opposed by all
members on the City Council and calls for all party support against
this risky and unproven Labour Government proposal which is driven
purely by the desire to cut costs, possibly as a prelude to potential
privatisation of this profitable service. Council also requests all
Merseyside MPs to strenuously oppose this stupid plan."

[The agenda for the Liverpool City Council meeting is online here]

Another press cutting

(Birmingham Mail, October 31st 2007)

Click on image of clipping for bigger view

NBS campaigners at NHS demo in London

Staff and supporters march together with an urgent message.
Saturday 3rd November 2007

Facebook 'Save our Blood Service' group

Anyone with a Facebook account can join a group in opposition to the centralisation of blood testing and processing, and in favour of saving local labs and NBS staff's jobs. It has links to the petition and other ideas for supporters. The group currently has 662 members with more joining every week!

Simply use the Facebook search facility to find 'Save Our Blood Service'.

Please join it and invite all your friends, as this is a useful way to spread the word about the campaign.

Strategy review underway and everything to play for

The NBS centralisation strategy is currently undergoing review by the consultant agency McKinsey & Co. McKinsey are well-known for being the government's favourite choice of consultants in cases of NHS reorganisation (a.k.a. cuts), as this story illustrates, and boast Enron amongst their past clients...

Well-prepared NBS staff reps have been meeting with McKinsey to put forward our comprehensive arguments against the strategy. Here is one document for submission, which details not only the defensive case but suggests better alternative future directions for the NBS (link also added to links section on right of page).

The review alone is no guarantee that the restructuring plans will be stopped, so supporters can still help by contacting the media, who can help to raise awareness, or your city council, who can intervene if they feel they have not been properly consulted about what the closure of local labs will mean for hospitals.

This link will take you to a page where you can find your local Public and Patient Involvement Forum. This is another way for NHS users to formally get involved in debating plans for health service reconfigurations. Please send a copy of the document above to your area's PPI Forum.

New download: Blood Service Chat flyers

Now available - flyers for Blood Service Chat. Staff please print out, photocopy and circulate around your co-workers like a highly contagious virus...

Click here

Download link also added to the links section on the right hand side of the page.

More press coverage

Nursing Times (25/09/07) ran a story on the turmoil in Donor Services following director Richard Fry's bullying of NBS staff.



And a concerned member of the public helps to spread the word about NBS lab cuts via the local newspaper letters page.


(Birmingham Mail, September 27th 2007)

Blog updates!

Announcing some new updates and links for this blog.

* Blood Service Chat is a brand new message board - for NHSBT staff, by NHSBT staff.
Get to know each other, have a laugh, share problems and advice, or generally moan and rant (anonymously) about anything. Friends welcome.
BSC was inspired by the massively successful Royal Mail Chat, which has helped posties build unity and communication during the hard times of their dispute with Royal Mail bosses.



* Two new campaign resources are now available to download. Please make copies yourself and help to distribute them both.
This is an up-to-date leaflet aimed at donors, patients, other healthworkers and the general public.
Here is the September edition of the NBS Worker, a new shop-floor staff newsletter. It is hoped the NBS Worker will help to bridge the information gap between centres and sectors, which existing news bulletins from the top are failing to do. Staff please get involved with contributing anything you want to - this newsletter belongs to you.
Links also added to the panel on the right.

* An additional resolution passed by Amicus staff in Manchester has been added to this post about the new proposals for testing in Bristol.
Thanks to a combination of solidarity from colleagues in other centres, and rational and assertive negotiating by staff-side reps, most of the major problems with the orignal drastic proposal have been binned - payments will be kept at the present level, the 6 day week is gone, and hours are improved. Some problems do remain with non-standard hours, but the new set-up has to pass a ballot of the Bristol Amicus membership before it goes live.

Management aggression to Donor Services staff

A now long-running attitude of aggression from NBS management to Donor Services staff (such as the collection teams) has recently worsened, with a letter from widely disliked DS Director Richard Fry.

The letter in question

In it he refers to a number of 'non-compliances' noted by the MHRA, a regulatory body which gives the Blood Service our licence to practise, on their last round of inspections. These fall into 2 camps - 'major' and 'other'.

Richard Fry comments on 3 small 'Good Manufacturing Practice' failures by collection teams, while carefully avoiding any mention of the management non-compliances (including their handling of change) which the MHRA picked up on. The truth is that it is these top-level errors which are the 'major' problems, and the threat to our licence, while the issues needing attention by Donor Services staff definitely come under the category of 'other'.

The tone of the letter is unacceptably threatening. Richard Fry warns heavily that action will be taken against those who fail to comply with procedure in future. He claims that although these points were noted at one particular site, there is no reason to assume the same mistakes are not rife across the service.

Many of us when starting to work for the NBS were told that this was an employer which encouraged a 'no blame' culture. The NBS 'Mission and Values' - now almost abandoned as an idea behind the organisation - talked about looking for solutions together. This is far from Richard Fry's current unhealthy iron rule of scaring staff into obedience. This letter is just one more example, for a growing pile, of how Blood Service management disrespect and harrass the underappreciated staff, week in, week out.

If you work in Donor Services and would like to anonymously have a moan about Richard Fry's unfair attacks, please feel free to use the comments section below. Your colleagues working in the labs and other NHS staff need (and would be interested) to hear your views.


The hardworking face of the National Blood Service

More community support for Blood Service staff

The team from local community newsletter Brumstar and the IWW union hung a 10 foot banner outside the Birmingham blood processing and testing centre last month, to show support for the staff inside and to raise awareness amongst the passing public, including patients and healthworkers at the QE hospital on the same site.







If you have more photos from around the country of demos in support of the Save Our Blood Service campaign, email them to:

nbs.sos[AT]gmail.com
(replace [AT] with @)

Sheffield council supports our campaign!

We are delighted to announce that following a debate held between NBS workers and management, Sheffield City Council (Health and Community Care Scrutiny and Policy Development Board) considered their position on the centralisation plans, and have come out publicly, strongly and thoroughly condemning the strategy.

The recent terrible flooding in England almost crippled Sheffield blood centre and it is testimony to the great skill and teamwork of NBS staff there and at connected sites that a reliable supply of blood products was able to be safely maintained to hospitals without too many difficulties. This is proof of the benefits of the Blood Service operating from many local depots and not piling all its eggs into 3 baskets with vulnerable supercentres.

It doesn't take much to persuade people of why we think the proposals are wrong, but well done to the supporters and reps at Trent NBS involved for winning us this valuable victory!

Read the full minutes of the debate on 11th June here

Here is the Council resolution, passed on 25th June 2007.

From Sheffield City Council
NATIONAL BLOOD SERVICE
The Board gave further consideration to its response to the presentation made by the National Blood Service upon the National Health Service Blood and Transplant Service Strategy 2006-10, considered by the Board at its meeting held on 11th June, 2007.
RESOLVED:
That in the light of the information made available, this Board
(a) views with grave concern the proposals outlined by the National Blood Service to re-organise the Service in England and Wales without sufficient evidence of the need to re-organise the Service and particularly with regard to the impact of the re-organisation proposals in the City,
(b) believes that these proposals could result in Manchester being the nearest Testing and Processing Site to the City and serving the whole of the North of England and Wales and the transfer of blood storage and distribution facilities in the City to Leeds, thereby putting at risk the availability of blood and blood products in the City, particularly in emergency situations;
(c) views with disquiet the lack of clarity as to whether or not the Strategy was formulated in consultation with medical experts and laboratory managers from local hospitals and if the strategy has the support of these professionals;
(d) notes with concern the fears expressed by the trades union and others that the proposals would have a severe impact upon the ability of the Children's Hospital to continue its internationally renowned work on children's leukaemia, the training arrangements for Consultant Haematologists in the City, the immediate availability of specialist blood components and the carrying out of specialist research and development activities such as stem cell research, which are presently supplied by the Sheffield Centre;
(e) does not accept the premise put forward by the National Blood Service that the NBS Centre in Sheffield was "not fit for purpose" when the Centre has recently under gone several major refurbishment projects and, in the opinion of managers, is now fit for purpose for at least another 10 years;
(f) would wish to express its dissatisfaction at the apparent lack of accurate costings for the proposals including transportation costs thereby not giving the Board any opportunity to reach "judgment" on the economic veracity of the proposals; (g) is of the view that the underlying philosophy behind the proposals is driven by economic consideration rather than service improvements particularly as no information regarding costings and deployment was made available to the Board;
(h) is concerned that this matter was brought to the attention of the Board in the first instance by the trades unions representing employees of the NBS in the City and not by the NBS and would urge the Secretary of State for Health to remind the Health bodies of their responsibility to engage in meaningful and comprehensive consultations with Local Authorities and other parties regarding proposals for service change and also to request in the strongest possible terms to examine closely the processes for disseminating information and engaging in consultation so as to ensure that substantial systemic improvements are made to prevent this situation arising again;
(i) believes that at a time when all agencies are committed to taking positive steps to reduce the environmental impact of road travel there would be every possibility of an adverse environmental impact through increased transportation of blood
products to the City together with the concomitant dangers of inaccessibility to the City in adverse weather conditions;
(j) whilst recognising that it is not within its remit to become involved with or comment upon the possible adverse economic impact of the proposals upon the City's regeneration would nevertheless urge the Leader of the City Council, the Cabinet Member with responsibility for Economic Regeneration, Culture and Planning and the Chief Executive to pursue this aspect of the proposals with the utmost vigour;
(k) requests that further proposals about this re-organisation be reported to the Board as a matter of urgency; and
(l) requests that copies of this resolution be forwarded to the Sheffield Members of Parliament, the Secretary of State for Health, the Core Cities and the other South Yorkshire Authorities.

Top NBS strategy man's head rolls

NBS staff have been musing at the surprise news that Chief Executive Martin Gorham would take early retirement last month.

Following almost 40 years in the NHS and nine years as Chief Executive of the National Blood Authority, and more recently NHSBT, Martin Gorham will be stepping down as Chief Executive at the end of July. Having completed the first phase of the development of NHSBT since its inception in October 2005, Martin has decided that now is an appropriate time to retire.

I would like to offer my thanks, and those of the NHSBT Board, to Martin for his years of outstanding commitment to the NHS in general and to the Blood Service in England in particular.

Bill Fullagar
Chairman

13th July 2007

On first hearing this is an unusual development. It certainly points to weakness and division within the Board of Directors. This is a strange time for one of our bosses to choose to jump ship, right in the middle of a supposedly flagship modernisation drive. Why would he not choose to hang around and soak up the praise from the Department of Health for a job well done at the end of it all?
Clearly the directors have been having disagreements, and some kind of internal power struggle which has caused Gorham to either offer to step down, or be pushed out...


NBS workers in Birmingham wave a tearful goodbye to their dear leader

On top of the already good news about the strategy review, this points out again how in the face of widespread opposition, the policy-makers are struggling to show a united front. If we pull out all the stops to work together, we have a great chance to influence the plans for the Blood Service from here on. We will keep up the pressure on the rest of the Board and the new Chief Executive Clive Ronaldson. By being organised as NBS workers and as service users, we will give them no choice but to properly consult with us.

Management announce review of strategy!

Following the Board meeting on July 5th, which NBS union reps lobbied once again, Chairman Bill Fullager released this letter to staff on July 10th.

Letter to staff

Dear colleagues,

As you know, NHSBT has made considerable progress in a number of areas since the NHSBT strategy was launched last November. The construction of Filton (on time and on budget), the increase in appointments for blood donors and the record numbers of organs available for transplantation are all tangible examples of this progress.

Given the importance of the service strategy to both patients and the NHS, and in the light of our discussions, with customers and colleagues over the past six months, the NHSBT Board has decided to hold a review of the assumptions underpinning the strategy and its planned changes. This review will be led by Clive Ronaldson, in his new role as interim managing director of the NBS.

The Board remains committed to the vision and set out in the service strategy announced last November. At the same time, we have acknowledged and listened to concerns expressed and issues raised by staff and customers about aspects of these plans. In instigating this review, the Board is seeking to ensure that proposed changes will deliver the greatest benefits to patients. Where the review demonstrates that changes to the strategy are warranted, these will be made.

This means that although some changes in the early phases of the NHSBT change programme will continue as planned, fundamental developments - such as changes to aspects of the current configuration of processing and testing facilities - will not begin until the review is complete.

You will, clearly, have questions about the review and its implications for you and your site. This decision has only just been made and we wanted to make you aware of developments as soon as possible. We are currently confirming the terms of the review and how it will work, in discussion with staff representatives, and will be in a position to give you further details, for example on the timescale, over the coming weeks.

In the meantime, we welcome your views. If you have any immediate queries, please talk to your line manager or send them to us via Connect.

With best wishes,

Bill Fullagar
Chairman
10 July 2007

This is a massive breakthrough for the campaign! Until now the directors have flatly refused to consider any change to their proposals, no matter who from or how sensible. They have felt untouchable. For them to now put the brakes on and admit they are ready to think again about even small parts of the plans means the opposition is reaching a level that they cannot ignore. It can be no coincidence that this letter comes just after staff-side beginning steps for a ballot on industrial action. Bosses have seriously underestimated the staff's willingness to be pushed around and see the Blood Service they are proud of fall into a messy decline in the name of 'savings'.

With this knowledge to spur us on now is the time to carry on campaigning at full speed. Service users and patients still need a bigger say in the running of the NBS. This review shows that we can make sure that the policy-makers have no choice but to involve us all.

It's far from over! The future is still unwritten.

Petition races past the 1000 post

Our online e-petition today crossed the 1000 signatures mark and shows no sign of slowing down.

If you haven't signed it yet then please do!
This way to add your voice



Although a petition on its own has limits in terms of causing change, every name represents a person who cares about the future of the Blood Service, and is opposed to the risky and illogical threatened changes. This is great for staff to see. Morale is very low and although support may be huge, it is hard to measure it and more often it feels like no eyes are watching. The NBS is a specialist wing of the NHS which doesn't grab many headlines or column inches. You can help to publicise our cause by sending the link for the petition to all your contacts.

Thanks for your support so far!

Invitation to the NBS Board Meeting 05/07/07

The National Blood Service Board of Directors meets today (Thursday 5th July) at the Bio Products Laboratory (BPL), Dagger Lane, Elstree, Hertfordshire, WD6 3BX.


You're paying for their buffet!

Until recently they preferred more central meeting points but lately this venue in the hard-to-reach backwaters of the commuter belt is their favourite. Less opportunity for embarrassing scenes of angry health workers.

Union reps will be attending from mid-morning to push on with efforts to stop the march of drastic reconfiguration. If you are in the area, you can demonstrate your support for the NBS staff, but even more excitingly, the Board meetings are legally 'public', so you could drop in and ask them to pull you up a chair...

An attack on public services

The NHSBT management need encouragement to be honest about the future of the NBS as a public institution. Year by year commercialisation creeps into the Blood Service, and associated organisations like the Bio Products Laboratory. Managing Director Peter Garwood was questioned by a rep on a recent visit to a centre, on whether the NBS planned to sell off its in-house transport wing to private contractors. He admitted that this had not been ruled out as an option.

Profit-seeking private firms are like vultures circling the NHS, and whenever they make inroads, they destroy the service for patients and staff alike. Look at ward cleaning nowadays for example, or the chaos in the provision of oxygen to patients. This vital lifeline was sold to a US corporation with a dodgy financial record, and within weeks a woman had died when her oxygen failed to be delivered in time. Opposing privatisation is not only an ethical matter, it makes sense for the safety and wellbeing of those whose lives hang in the balance.

This restructuring strategy is dressed up as modernisation, but it is a warning sign for future dangerous steps backwards. Centralisation is recognised as one of the early stages in the move towards privatisation. NBS staff are well aware of this, and like health workers everywhere, oppose it. We want to protect the integrity of our Blood Service so that we can all rely on it in the future.

The plans roll into practice - worse shifts for less money!

The first stage of the strategy involves Birmingham and Southampton donor testing labs closing in December 2007 and their work transferring down to Bristol. This will be the current Southmead site as the supercentre at Filton is still mud and girders. It is madness to expect a lab already operating at full capacity to take on two extra centres' workload. The staff will suffer the brunt of the effects of this overstretch.



There is a shortage of state-registered bio-medical scientists at Southmead. This will create problems when taking holidays or covering sickness and training requirements.
Unions say the proposed new shift patterns are seriously flawed. In-keeping with all of this strategy there is contradiction, waste of labour and lack of solid contingency planning. Illogical deadlines will cause periods of intense pressure followed by ‘dead time’.
Bristol testing staff will face many more early starts, which could be avoided if directors properly consulted staff-side about best working patterns. There is little flexibility available for parents or those reliant on public transport. This also comes at a time when health workers’ payments for Unsocial Hours are under threat. Unions believe NBS management may be trying to sidestep Agenda for Change protection of Unsocial Hours payments, as the wording describing an interim transition period says ‘existing arrangements continue undisturbed’.

It is important that the views of experienced health staff are listened to at this point, as the progress in the Midlands and South-West zone will be a template for the rest of the country. Bristol testing must not be railroaded into an unsuitable or unworkable shift system.

Here is a resolution passed unanimously by Amicus in Testing, Colindale.

Resolution on Proposed Shift System for Testing in Bristol

Staff in Colindale Testing Department view the proposed Working Patterns and Staffing Structure for Testing at Bristol Southmead with deep concern.

We are concerned about:

(a) the effect which these proposals, if implemented, will have on the lives of our colleagues in Bristol, Birmingham and Southampton.

(b) the probability that whatever is implemented in the Midlands and South West will shortly afterwards be implemented in the North and in London and the South East.

(c) the 6.00 a.m. start, which would be impossible for parents of young children or for staff who travel to work by public transport.

(d) the week-day shifts taking place at four different times of day, the latest ending at 11.00 p.m., plus a different two-shift pattern at week-ends, with consequent large changes in sleep patterns and meal-times that will affect the health of staff.

(e) the inclusion of 46 working days, instead of the normal 45, in the 9 weeks, and the 5 days per year to be used as a contingency, which taken together would give staff an extra 11 working days per year, when they would travel to work in their own time and at their own expense.

(f) the Saturday working, which would be difficult for parents of young children and for those who travel to work by train, (because the engineering work on the tracks is done at week-ends), and would also discriminate against some religious groups.

(g) the staffing structure, which would approximately halve the number of Biomedical Scientists in Testing in the Midlands and South West, leaving an inadequate number of state registered staff to cope with the workload.

(h) the probability that the training week would actually be used to cover staff shortages.

(i) the shortening of the tea-breaks to 2 X 15 minutes, when the present 20 minute breaks at Colindale are sometimes inadequate because of the queue in the tea-room.

We find the proposals inconsistent with the aims of Improving Working Lives, and believe that the NHSBT will not get the best possible work out of staff who are unable to arrange good care for their children and whose own health is suffering from the weekly changes in their working patterns.

We call upon the management to consider the following changes to their proposals:

* Keeping Processing and Testing at more than three sites, thereby reducing the necessity for very long opening hours at each site.
* The earliest starting time to be about 8.00 a.m., except where staff request to be allowed to start earlier,
* People with responsibility for young children to be allowed an earliest start time of 9.00 a.m. to fit their child-care arrangements.
* The employment of staff on fixed hours, some working always in the mornings and others always at later times, which would give them a better work-life balance, would not upset their biological clocks and would enable them to do better work.
* Keeping to a working week of 5 days of 7hrs 30mins each.
* Avoiding Saturday working by extra work on Fridays and Mondays, as happens at present in Colindale.
* Protecting training by employing more staff, including supernumerary trainers.

We pledge our total support to fellow members in Bristol.

If there is any attempt to impose the structure and hours in the Consultation Document on members at Bristol, we will request Amicus to ballot the members in all the Testing laboratories in the NBS for united industrial action.

Passed unanimously by Amicus members, Testing Department, NBS Colindale,
4th July 2007

Here is a resolution passed unanimously by Amicus in testing, Manchester.

Resolution on proposed shifts at Bristol


Testing staff at Manchester view the propposal tabled to the Bristol testing staff with deep concern and anger.

Anything agreed at Bristol has clear implifications for us and also staff at Colindale.

The hours are not easy to work, in particular the 6 am start and Saturday evening working, and are potentially discriminatory.

The staffing structure is inadequate to cope with such a workload; in particular there is a dire shortage of state registered staff with the only new posts being in the lower grades of Band 2, 3 and 4.

Also the 6 day weeks to cover Saturdays and the 5 days “banked” to cover Bank Holidays and weekends are totally unacceptable and not the best way to cover the work.

The combination of extra late, weekend and Bank Holiday working, the extra number of days worked per year, and the very early starts, make the whole system very family-unfriendly and incompattible with the avowed aims of IWL [Improving Working Lives].

Any such discussions should not form part of the SW redundancy discussion but should be a proper national negotiation with input from all affected sites.

In any case the only reason to work such anti-social shifts is to allow the NBS to close other Centres, making colleagues in other Centres redundant; if the NBS keeps a sensible number of PTI sites there will be no need to move to such extreme shifts.

We therefore call on the NBS to halt the strategy which centralises all donor testing work on just three sites.

We pledge our total support to fellow members in Bristol.

If there is any attempt to impose this structure and these hours on members at Bristol we will request Amicus to ballot the members in Manchester, Colindale and Bristol for united industrial action.


Passed unanimously by Amicus members, Testing department, Manchester Blood Centre, 14th June 2007

Press coverage

First up is a mention of the first redundancies to hit the NBS due to the centralisation strategy, on Friday 22nd June:


(Socialist Worker, 30th June 2007)


Sandra will be sadly missed in the Blood Service

Birmingham staff marked the leaving of these colleagues with a public vigil to demonstrate that any and every job loss in the service will be remembered and felt.


A topical letter to the Birmingham Mail, responding to a report on the progress of the new 'super' hospital in Edgbaston. This massive complex could have a fully functioning blood centre right on its doorstep, but, if directors get their way, instead it will be left with a glorified fridge, and the opportunity for medics to access the great expertise of the NBS specialists could be lost.


(Birmingham Mail, 2nd July 2007)

Building this webpage

This is a blog written by rank and file NBS workers, straight from the horse’s mouth. We want to get our side of the story across without being shouted down by management, as often happens in the media, or waiting for remote national union officers to give a watered down version of how we are feeling and what we are doing.



Please help to make this an accurate and in-depth resource, by contributing. This blog is for us and by us!

* Reports are needed from staff from all across the NHS Blood and Transplant sector. Lab workers badly need stronger links with donor carers, transport, office staff and any other colleagues, including blood bank technicians in hospitals. We are divided at the moment but it doesn’t have to stay like this. How are you and your workmates feeling about the strategy? What action is being organised at your centre?

* If you get any articles or letters into the papers, scan the clipping and email it to the address below (jpeg format if possible) and we will get it up online.

* Supporters of the campaign - if you write to management or your MP and get any interesting replies they will be good to add to the blog as well.

* All are welcome to use the comments section as a message board/forum facility, for example for asking questions, suggesting ideas, or sending messages of solidarity and encouragement to staff.

* If you would like to go onto a mailing list to be informed of updates to the blog, contact the blog email address. (We will not pass your email to any spammer scum, neither will we clog up your inbox with unrelated mail you have not requested!)

Submit your content to: nbs.sos[AT]gmail.com
(replace [AT] with @)

Are you a union shop steward or rep in the Blood Service?

If so here is a suggestion for you.

Communication between centres in different areas, and between lab staff and donor facing staff is almost non-existent. This is bad for several reasons.

It can feel that we are all isolated from one another in our separate regions. The only 'contact' many of us have with each other is when photos of our protests are emailed around and properly cascaded by hardworking and effective staff reps. Even then the large number of NBS staff who can't easily access computers and email (such as drivers and donor carers) are left out of the loop.

In reality we are one big workforce but the vast gulf between labs and donor carers makes it feel like we work for entirely different employers. Some collection teams are actually unaware of the full scale of proposed restructuring and its effects, despite national union officers claiming that all members and reps are being kept informed of the staff-side campaign in opposition. All centres have submitted cases for their own labs to be saved - implying at the expense of other centres - but we could take a more positive unified stance. It is not too late for us to put up a successful grassroots union resistance.

Our message will be communicated to the public louder if we work together and in an organised, co-ordinated way. Previous successes in defending our Liverpool centre were won by staff and reps tirelessly mounting a huge campaign to hog the media spotlight. More importantly, a combined fight from all staff will give us strength from each other. Solidarity and mutual support can help to beat the low morale, defeatism and exhaustion which is rife across us all who are trying to save the service.

In the absence of an external message board for us to use at this moment (NBS intranet forums can be read by management), the suggestion is that all union reps across the NBS sign up as users of the TUC's unionreps notice board.

unionreps.org.uk from the TUC

It is free to use, and will make it easier for us to keep in touch and discuss the campaign, as well as access much valuable advice for reps on disputes and organising in general. Hope to see you on there!

Maybe you are a member of staff reading this who is not a union rep but would like to be? There is no such thing as too many. Speak to your local steward.

Another useful link for reps wanting to build stronger organisation across the Blood Service and beyond

You are the...


Post your comments and ideas below...

How YOU can get involved!

Staff, supporters and union reps have constantly been working to spread the message in all ways possible about the threatened strategy and our opposition. We have written to the media, lobbied MPs both locally and at the Houses of Parliament, spoken at trade union meetings and conferences, and networked extensively with other health campaigners.


Manchester staff working the media


One of many Saturday street stalls in Birmingham city centre


Speaking about the cuts and the campaign against them at Birmingham Trades Council's May Day rally

However there can never be enough of this campaigning activity!
Most people, both medical workers and the general public, are still unaware of the proposals for the NBS, which makes it harder for us to fight them. All of us are potential recipients of freely donated blood. Donors are altruistic people and have a keen interest in the whole transfusion process. They are now being disrespectfully excluded.

You can help our cause directly by adding to the pressure put on the policy makers, and raising awareness of the threatened cuts on our behalf.

* Please tell everyone you know about the threatened centralisation and job cuts in the Blood Service. If you have a website add a link to this page.
* Please write to or phone the local and national media: newspapers, television stations and radio stations.
* Sign our online petition and forward the link onto all your contacts.
* Please write to your MP expressing concern about how your local hospital will be affected by the cuts.
So far MPs have been fobbed off, by NBS management propaganda, from fully joining our campaign against the strategy. However constant letters from constituents about this topic can only make them more likely to call for at least a halt to the restructuring, to allow for real and meaningful consultation.
Use this link to easily contact your MP
* Trade union branches please pass a resolution in support of the NBS workers' campaign, and in opposition to the reconfiguration strategy.
* Future protests will be announced on this blog - please support them in person if you are able to get down to one of the centres near you.
* Leaflets can be downloaded for distribution from the links panel on the right-hand side of this page.
* Finally, if you feel strongly about saving the Blood Service, why not make your feelings known to our boss, Chief Executive Clive Ronaldson?
It may seem pointless but opinions from donors and recipients of blood are valued more than those of staff. Plus it creates extra annoying work if he comes in each morning to a fresh pile of irritated letters and emails on the same subject. Be prepared to wait for a response - and mentally psyche yourself up for the 'everything will be fine' official corporate-speak.

Clive Ronaldson
Managing Director
National Blood Service
Oak House
Read’s Crescent
Watford
Hertfordshire WD24 4PH

clive.ronaldson[AT]nbs.nhs.uk
(replace [AT] with @)

Thanks to all for their support so far.
Post your comments and ideas below...

Open letter from staff-side to NBS management

This letter was presented to the NHSBT board of directors in early June, officially declaring the unions' intention to ballot NBS members on national industrial action against the proposed strategy.

Open letter to the NHSBT board

Staff side statement

We the staff side are extremely concerned with the direction the directors and senior management are taking this organisation as a result of the proposed change strategy.

It must be acknowledged that scientific staff, particularly those under 40, have left, are leaving or are considering leaving the organisation and as time moves on the ability of the existing centres to maintain their current working practices will be based purely on the age pattern of the staff in each department and centre.

This will be repeated in the RCI labs as closure of their departments draws nearer. This is a direct result of the strategy and plans announced 6 months ago.
We could soon be in a position where having 3 testing centres is the only available option left. All of the other centres would have become unable to maintain their current working practices having insufficient staffing levels to carry out the testing. The service would be left in serious jeopardy especially as the remaining centres would also have insufficient numbers of staff to take on extra work at short notice.

There appears to be a cavalier attitude from the senior management to the staff sides’ response to the strategy. There is very little support for the strategy from managers and staff side as well as the Office of Government and Commerce who have also expressed the same concerns over the issues of staff leaving and the possibility that the service will be unable to maintain its current service level agreements. How is the organisation going to carry out this restructuring without failing hospitals, patients and the staff.

The staff side have responded to the strategy and reiterated our position, that 3 processing and 3 testing sites is not the answer, and we urge the senior managers and directors to make changes to the strategy while the is still time so that we can maintain our existing services to both hospitals and patients.

As a result the staff side give notice that unless there is a significant change in the strategy the staff side will have no option but to ballot the membership on the basis that there has been no meaningful consultation and that there is a need to protect the services we currently provide.

The fightback campaign so far

The National Blood Service is divided into 3 geographical zones: Midlands and South West, London and South East, and Northern.

NBS directors announced the strategy first in the Midlands and South West, several months ahead of the rest of the country. We feel that this was a deliberate tactic to test the waters of opposition before fully rolling it out nationally.

Although unions began negotiation with management at once, the public profile of the campaign against centralisation was not raised highly enough at this crucial stage.
Shellshocked staff were let down by the lack of communication between blood centres and the failure of the unions' leadership to go all out to make a fuss in the media. We have learnt lessons from our slow start to the campaign, and now that the restructuring plans apply across all zones, we must work hard to make up for the lost time when awareness could have been better raised.

Staff repeatedly attended meetings of the NBS board of directors, to protest, speak directly with executives, and submit well-reasoned counter-proposals. Staff-side reps spent hours researching and costing alternatives to just three supercentres, but these were without exception disregarded as the Board has stubbornly railroaded ahead with their precious flagship strategy.


Staff and reps at an NBS board meeting in Elstree

A petition was launched from the start of the campaign, with signatures collected on public street stalls. We already have several 1000s of names, of friends, family, fellow health workers, and the public, who support us.
Please sign our online e-petition now!

NBS staff held united national demonstrations on February 14th (symbolically chosen as Valentine's Day) which received good media coverage.


Sheffield blood centre's Valentine's Day protest


Leeds blood centre's Valentine's Day protest

Further protests followed at all centres on June 15th 2007, one day after World Blood Donor Day, a final warning to management that staff would not meekly accept their reckless slashing of the Blood Service.


The message is loud and clear from Birmingham blood centre

Watch the film of NBS Birmingham's demo

For many more pictures of our campaign in action please see the links table to the right of the page.

After months of fruitless negotiating, bosses have arrogantly not accepted any alteration to their proposal from staffside. This has forced the unions to move into the unwelcome phase of balloting staff for industrial action. Amicus (now part of Unite) have already carried out one preliminary ballot of their technical lab staff to consult them on their willingness to take action. 81% voted in favour. Now all of the unions involved will be starting the legal ballot process again, together.

The situation for emergency workers in dispute is always difficult and they often feel that their position is weakened because withdrawal of labour will cost lives. This decision is never taken lightly. The Government and health bosses take advantage of this difficulty to force through damaging changes to our NHS. With public support this strategy can be shown up as what it is: bullying. As such it cannot be condoned. Any problems that result from a dispute are fundamentally caused by the Government pushing skilled workers into a position where they must defend the service with the only effective means at their disposal. Any problems caused by such action will pale into insignificance when these local centres disappear. Unions and staff will ensure that vital cover is provided to serve patients. The whole point of taking action is to defend the service from cuts, and make sure blood continues to get through to those who need it.

See next post for the unions' open letter to the NHSBT board of directors on industrial action.

What are the plans - and why are they a threat?

Staff have been in industrial dispute with the NBS board of directors/management for many months now, over an unworkable reconfiguration strategy. It is proposed that all local processing and testing labs be closed, and their functions condensed into just three 'supercentres' to serve the whole of England and North Wales, in Bristol, Manchester and Colindale.

The rationale for this plan is a short-sighted financial one. The strategy was boasted about in the Financial Times before it was even announced to affected staff. Directors are justifying centralisation because the demand from hospitals for red cells is currently falling, while the cost of each pack of red cells is rising. It suits them to assume this projected decline in demand will continue, despite an aging UK population and looming threats such as a flu pandemic. Other service areas that we provide, like platelets and transplants, are growing, but this seems to be ignored to fit with the market-minded strategy.

A study for respected journal Vox Sanguinis by Dr. A Pereira found that larger blood processing and testing centres do not necessarily lead to economies of scale.
Link here - registration needed for full text, but overview available to all.

We say that patients' welfare should be our number one concern, not tightening the purse strings to win praise from the Department of Health.

The National Blood Service is in fact a financially successful and efficient part of the NHS, which, unlike many health Trusts, is not in debt. The management proposals are purely based on cost-cutting and speculation by accountants. Our bosses have no problem with spending undisclosed thousands of taxpayers' money on parasitic external consultancy agencies.

The NBS directors plan to make overall 600 staff - half of the laboratory workforce - redundant. They claim this will save the service millions. (Surprisingly, just before the strategy was announced, around 50 new high level Band 7 posts were created, which cost the NBS £1.9 million in salaries.) These are highly specialised and skilled staff, many of whom have worked for the NBS for decades, and have never worked anywhere else. Opportunities for transfer to the new supercentres or suitable redeployment elsewhere in the crisis-stricken NHS are few and far between.

The new supercentres will be huge factories running on harsh anti-social 24 hour shift rotas to cope with the workload. At each site the NBS will have to wastefully recruit and train new workers, having just thrown the existing loyal workforce onto the scrapheap.

There are fears about road congestion delaying the smooth flow of products around the country. Our ability to respond in case of major incident could be compromised. There will be no south-east centre outside the M25, no centre at all north of London to the east of the Pennines, and no centre for the West Midlands (including the diverse needs of the second city, Birmingham). Police figures back up staff concerns about jams on long south-west transport routes. Blood collections from local mobile sessions and permanent donor centres would have to be driven hundreds of miles around the country to and from the supercentres, putting even more reliance on an already overloaded and frequently clogged up motorway network, and shortening the life-span of the products. The same would apply for patients' samples, increasing the risk of them being misplaced, wrongly stored or wrongly labelled.

Although the NBS vehicle fleet has been commended for its use of green fuel, adding to traffic volume is bad for the environment. Consider the effects of a major road traffic accident. There will be people needing blood which cannot be delivered because of the traffic chaos caused by the same accident. The suggestion of transporting blood by helicopter in an emergency is ludicrous - they have to be crewed and maintained which would be an impossible cost.

The official line is that services which need to be close to hospitals will stay there, like the issue blood banks. Staff believe otherwise. A patient died this week waiting to be rushed a 'washed' platelet from the local centre. 'Washing' is just one of many special processes done by the components lab - which is being centralised. 40% of samples crossmatched by our special investigations department (on-call day and night, 365 days a year) are classed as 'emergency'.

Staff do not believe that centralisation will make the Blood Service more efficient. We know best, not managers, the day-to-day and hour-to-hour needs of our hospitals and patients. We have good working relationships with our users, and essential local knowledge. Hospitals could be forced to spend more on training their own haematology staff, larger storage capacity and reagents for their own testing.
Despite what the directors say, neither employees or service users have had any meaningful input into the strategy - the service's future is being dictated to us all from on high.



For more information you can contact iww.nbs[AT]googlemail.com (replace [AT] with @)

Welcome to this blog

This blog is written and published by individual NBS staff. All opinions are the authors' own. This blog has no connections with any official organisations.

It has been set up to inform the public of a side of our current story which we feel needs wider exposure.

The National Blood Service is under severe attack from a restructuring strategy which staff are strongly opposed to. We want the public, including blood donors and patients, to be aware of the whole situation, as stakeholders, alongside the staff, in the future of the Service.

Thanks for reading, and please get in touch for more information.

Please visit us again for regular updates.

So, what exactly does the Blood Service do anyway?

The National Blood Service is a vital part of the NHS. We deliver blood, blood products and tissues from our 15 blood centres for transfusion to patients anywhere in England and North Wales.

We depend entirely on voluntary donations given generously by the general public.

Our processing labs filter donations and split them into components including red cells (often used for operations or major traumas), white cells (often used for leukaemia patients), frozen plasma (often used for serious burns victims) and platelets (used for those who have disorders with clotting).
Our testing labs test every unit to determine which group it belongs to. There are 8 groups: O+ (the most common), O-, A+, A-, B+, B-, AB+ and AB- (the rarest). There are further specialist groups within these, like Sickle Cell negative. Every donation is also rigorously screened for infections so that it is safe for patients. The blood which patients receive is specially matched to their individual medical needs and can make the difference between life and death.

Our staff are highly experienced and trained in the latest transfusion science research available.

Every year we collect, test, process, store and issue 2.1 million blood donations.

Our National Health Service would not be able to function without the National Blood Service.