Northamptonshire hospitals request voluntary resignations from hundreds of employees

Workers at Northampton General Hospital and Kettering General Hospital (KGH) have this week been informed of a Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme (MARS).

The scheme is set to start on Thursday (May 1) and, according to University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN), is designed to:

• Help reduce overall workforce size in a ‘controlled and compassionate’ way

• Avoid compulsory redundancies

• ‘Create space’ for redesign and renewal across teams

UHN’s Chief Executive Laura Churchward said: “We are launching a MARS for some colleagues across our hospitals. This voluntary scheme is designed to help reduce our workforce size in a controlled and compassionate way, avoiding compulsory redundancies. Colleagues who are caring directly for patients are not in scope of the scheme, and each application will be carefully considered to enable us to deliver more efficient services that continue to meet the needs of our patients.”

Unison, one of the UK’s largest trade unions representing public service workers, has criticised the move.

A Unison spokesman said: “NHS staff in Northamptonshire are already overworked. Paying off hundreds of staff will only make this situation worse.

“We have real concerns about what this will mean for the staff who resign under this scheme, for their colleagues left to pick up the pieces, and the patients who rely on vital services.”

A worker at KGH said: “They are requesting voluntary resignations instead of voluntary redundancy or compulsory redundancy, the latter of which has a better package, including monetary benefits. If not enough people take up the offer, compulsory redundancy could not be ruled out later in the year. The positions would not be replaced, and the workload would be distributed to the remaining workforce, on top of the already demanding workload. This will not affect front-line staff such as nurses or doctors. The whole workforce is being squeezed.”