A hospital is offering food vouchers to its staff who are struggling to make ends meet, it has been reported.
Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Stepping Hill Hospital, said it "can now issue Stockport Food Bank vouchers to anyone who is struggling" in an internal email to its staff seen by the Manchester Evening News.
Three vouchers can be issued per person across thirteen weeks with a number to contact for ongoing support after that, the email continued.
Staff have shared their frustration with the email saying they are desperately trying to make ends meet amid the cost of living crisis.
They also say they are earning less than in previous years and still have to pay to use hospital car parks.
The email from the trust reads: "We can now issue Stockport Food Bank vouchers to anyone who is struggling. In addition to the guaranteed food parcel comprising three days of food, toilet rolls and other personal hygiene items plus nappies and baby wipes are also included.
"Many centres also offer (as available) a selection of bread, fruit and vegetables as well as citizens advice and other support. Three vouchers can be issued per person across thirteen weeks with a number to contact thereafter for ongoing support."
The email then gives a contact address, advising that any voucher requests will be "dealt with in the strictest confidence".
One junior doctor at the trust, who wishes to remain anonymous, blasted the email saying staff should not need to use food banks in the first place.
They said: "I’m a junior doctor and I’m struggling beyond words to afford to live, let alone live comfortably. I’m on 30 per cent less than my equivalent in 2008.
"The trust I work for sent an email advising they are now in a position to offer us food bank vouchers.
"The trust also were quick to reintroduce parking fees for staff when the government advised trusts could reimplement the fees if they chose.
"At such a time of inequality, rising costs and falling healthcare workforce numbers, not to mention the stress and exhaustion from working a pandemic whilst everyone worked from home safely, we’re rewarded with a national insurance rise, licence to practice fees, malpractice insurance, union membership… and we also get the privilege of paying for parking to work.
"I thought it ironic and tone deaf the trust should send an email about food banks whilst taking between £200 to £500 from our salaries a year for the privilege of turning up to work."
The trust has said that parking charges were reinstated - having been waived at the height of the pandemic - to "ensure that the cost of maintaining the car parks, hospital roadways and car park security does not come out of patient care funding".
The junior doctor says that despite this it is still unaffordable.
They said: "I think it’s pretty telling that for all the work and hours we put in, the hospital sends out this email offering food bank vouchers, rather than helping with not charging for parking.
“The amount you pay depends on your grade, the highwell-beingade, the higher your cost is for parking - but you’re all using the same car park. The lowest cost is about £200-a-year. I can’t afford to park there anymore. I would have been about £30-£40 a month.
“You don’t go into this job for the money, but there’s a misconception that doctors are paid much more than we are."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson told The Mirror: “We hugely value the contribution of our NHS staff and are doing what we can to support them – including providing free hospital car parking for NHS staff working overnight among other groups.
“Junior doctors are in a pre-existing multi-year pay and contract reform deal, ending in March next year, which will be the right time to consider pay.
“This deal included a pay rise of 8.2 per cent over four years and £90 million of additional investment to provide the most experienced junior doctors with higher pay, increase allowances for those working the most frequently at weekends and increase rates of pay for night shifts.”
A Stockport NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson told The Mirror: "We understand the huge pressures the current economic position is placing on many people, including our own staff and the local population we serve.
"While NHS pay scales are set nationally we are taking a number of actions to support the health and well-being of our colleagues.
"These include working with all our partners across Stockport to ensure those facing the greatest hardship have access to a range of support, such as food bank vouchers if they need them. Alongside all other hospital trusts in Greater Manchester and the vast majority of trusts in England, we had to reintroduce parking charges for both our staff and the public following a government mandate earlier this year.
"Our staff car parking charges are on a progressive scale so that higher-paid staff pay more than lower-paid staff, and we also have a range of concessions available, including free parking for staff who work nights and different rates for those who work flexibly.
"As part of our Green Plan, we are also encouraging and supporting staff to use alternative ways to travel to work, including raising awareness of TfGM's £2 cap on bus journeys and investing in additional cycle facilities for those who can bike to work."
