A doctor has claimed there is currently “widespread concern” within NHS Tayside that staff are quitting their jobs because of delays in reviews of their roles which determine their pay.
Dr Norman Pratt, who up until the end of last month had been an non-executive member of the NHS Tayside board and the chair of its area clinical forum, made the claim in a report put before the board at its latest hybrid meeting.
Under the heading ‘Agenda for Change Evaluation Panels’ Dr Pratt stated he had concluded from a discussion at a previous meeting of the forum that delays in job evaluations being completed had led to some staff “moving on” as they felt “undervalued” in their roles.
Dr Pratt, who quit the board during last month’s meeting over a number of issues including a breakdown in relations with its chair over a recent breast cancer treatment controversy, went on to assert in his report the backlog was now “undermining” the board’s ability to keep hold of staff.
His report said: “It was noted that NHS Tayside job evaluation panels had not been meeting throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The current delay and lack of progress with job evaluation requests has led to staff moving on as they feel undervalued in the roles they are doing.
“There was widespread concern that the delay in evaluations was undermining Tayside’s ability to attract and retain staff and in addition undermining the ability of successfully delivering on contractual obligations.
“The area clinical forum would appreciate the support of Tayside NHS Board to set up additional panels utilising the staff who had recently been trained and supported to expedite the backlog of evaluation requests. This would support recruitment and retention of staff and alleviate some of the challenges currently being faced by the board.”
However the board’s employee director Jenny Alexander questioned the content of this section of the report during last month’s meeting and asked what evidence Dr Pratt had to back up what he had written.
Ms Alexander said delays in job evaluations was not something she was aware staff had listed as a reason for leaving the organisation but if it was really happening she would be prepared to act quickly to try to resolve the issue.
“I would like to see the written evidence so we could do something quite swiftly about this,” she said.
Dr Pratt reasserted the concern he expressed over the effect the delays were having on the workforce was the “consensus” of a previous meeting of the area clinical forum he had chaired but conceded his report could have been “phrased” better.
“Perhaps it’s not been phrased completely correctly but it is a heartfelt concern,” he said.
