Nurses and theatre practitioners at Fairfield General Hospital have been told they will be subject to an overtime pay cut from next month.

The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, which also runs Royal Oldham, Salford Royal, and Rochdale Infirmary, said it was making the change to remove disparities between pay at other hospitals.

One nurse, who wished to remain anonymous, however, said he thought the move was a "huge error" and believes the trust is hoping people would be too desperate to cancel their shifts.

He added it would lead to more NHS nurses leaving to go private.

The cut will affect ‘bank staff’ at the hospitals – a system through which NHS staff can choose to pick up extra shifts on top of their contracted hours.

This means staff from the hospital, or from another hospital, can join the ‘bank’ to pick up extra shifts when more staff are needed – many will use the system effectively as pre-booked overtime on top of their regular shifts, or others may use it to get experience in a different hospital.

However, in a letter sent to staff from Group Chief Nursing Officer, Professor Heather Caudle, staff were told their pay would be cut for these types of shifts from Wednesday, February 8.

Those most affected are nurses working in the Acute Medical Unit at Fairfield General and Royal Oldham.

Before, shifts would be paid at a day rate of £24.82 per hour, going up to £32.26 on nights and Saturdays, and rising further to £39.71 on Sundays and Bank Holidays.

Now, however, rates have been slashed by more than 16 per cent to £20.76 per hour in the day, £26.98 on nights and Saturdays, and £33.21 on Sundays and Bank Holidays.

A&E staff also affected

Other units at the trust’s hospitals are also impacted – with Accident & Emergency, Critical Care Unit, and theatre nurses and theatre practitioners seeing rates cut by just under two per cent.

It comes after health watchdog the Care Quality Commission told Fairfield General that it needed to improve in a report published.

ALSO READ: Fairfield Hospital told it 'requires improvement' after CQC inspection.

In the report, inspectors said that the hospital did not always have enough nursing and medical staff to keep patients safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment.

‘Staff are cancelling overtime en masse’

A nurse who works in a Northern Care Alliance hospital but wished to remain anonymous said: “I think the Northern Care Alliance has vastly underestimated what they’ve done to an already demoralised workforce.

“They emailed the cut at the start of January with 30 days’ notice in hope that people will be too desperate after Christmas to stop working overtime.

“Staff groups affected by the cut are now coming together to cancel overtime en masse - which sadly will have a disastrous effect on patients and waiting lists.

“The trust has made a huge error here and they will lose more talented professionals to private agencies.”

Hospital trust responds

Professor Caudle said: “As ever we value the hard work of all NHS Professionals (NHSP) bank colleagues, as well as their support in helping us to provide safe patient care.

“It is important that no matter where colleagues work in the NCA, they know they will be paid fairly and feel valued for the work they do.

“To align disparities in how NCA bank rates compare to other Greater Manchester trusts, as well as those across its care organisations, the trust is aligning all rates for bank shifts across our organisation.

"These rates only apply to additional shifts our bank staff choose to work. Rates for overtime following the end of a shift are not affected.”