Wexham Park and Heatherwood Hospital MRI teams object to privatisation plans

MRI teams at Wexham Park and Heatherwood Hospital fear privatisation of scanning at a new Slough medical centre will lead to poorer outcomes for patients.

Slough Community Diagnostics Centre (CDC) is expected to be built next year and will feature facilities hospital bosses hope will relieve pressure on Wexham Park and Heatherwood.

But members of MRI scanning teams at these hospitals - run by NHS Frimley Health Foundation Trust - have submitted a letter of grievance warning against privatisation of services at the new CDC.

A Magnetic Resonance Imaging [MRI] scan is a key tool used by doctors to identify and monitor illnesses.

Gary Palmer of GMB union, representing the affected workers, said: “We’ve been here before with Frimley Health Foundation Trust, where they tried to outsource all non-clinical services so they could pay some directors a higher wage.

“GMB members stopped those plans getting off the ground and these members are determined to remain in the NHS family as well.”

Mr Palmer said he hoped Frimley Health’s new chief executive Lance McCarthy would ‘start his tenure by creating a sensible working relationship with the main union within FHFT'.

And added: “If the employer does not listen to the concerns outlined by staff in the grievance, our members have proved before that they are prepared to take action to show their strength of feeling.”

MRI teams at these hospitals wrote to Frimley Health bosses in late June, warning against contracting MRI scans to a ‘profit-oriented private enterprise’.

In a grievance letter, they said subcontracting can cause an ‘unfriendly working environment’ between NHS workers and private ones.

“This sort of arrangement can bring friction and an unhealthy working environment that will end in lack of motivation and poor productivity,” they said.

The letter advised problems with outsourcing scanning teams existed at the trust’s Frimley Park Hospital site.

It also questioned colleagues who had shown support for the move, advising ‘[it makes us] wonder if these colleagues have any personal interest in these private companies thus raising questions of potential conflict of interest’.

Workers advised they were happy to see the Slough CDC built but urged Frimley Health leaders to keep scanning services in-house.

Frimley Health says it will be using a third party to provide MRI scans at Slough CDC, but that this will be ‘in addition’ services already offered.

A spokesperson from Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust said: “The Trust will be commissioning an external provider to deliver a new, additional MRI service when Slough Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) opens in 2025.

“This CDC service will be in addition to the MRI service offered at Wexham Park and Heatherwood Hospitals.

“This new contract will therefore not change the employment or working arrangements for staff working in those hospitals.

“Once opened the CDC will allow patients to access planned diagnostic care nearer to home without the need to attend acute hospital sites, enhancing local health and supporting our longer-term strategy of reducing pressure and improving services at our main hospitals.”