Northampton Healthcare assistant launches 'one-man strike' over end of private medical insurance contract at St Andrew's

A healthcare assistant at a Northampton mental health hospital has launched a "one-man strike" after being told a 20-year-old contract promising him and others private medical insurance will be withdrawn.

St Andrew's Hospital stopped offering new employees their private healthcare scheme in 2006 - but continued to honour it for any staff who were still signed on in the 15 years since.

But now, the hospital is withdrawing the contract for about 250 employees who have been with them the longest - and a Northampton healthcare assistant says he won't stand for it.

Paul Kuznecovs has been working for the hospital part-time for 19 years and says he will now go on a 'one-man strike' over the issue.

He said: "This is causing real grief among the workforce.

"Some people have been working here 20 to 30 years. Now they are getting to the end of their working lives and they're getting older and they're having their healthcare taken away when they need it most. I've had people cry to me about it.

"We are still in the process of fighting the most contagious epidemic in modern times and removing private medical insurance is so wrong.

"They have failed to clarify what the savings of this will be either or how many people will be affected."

A spokeswoman for St Andrew's said that although they couldn't detail how many employees exactly were still on the contract, it affected "fewer than five per cent" of their 5,000 staff.

The hospital was also unable to clarify how much withdrawing the contract would save, but placed the cost in the "hundreds of thousands per annum".

The spokeswoman said: "We have a wide range of benefits that are available for all staff, including enhanced annual leave, a full time trauma counsellor, in-house occupational health, a tailored Employee Assistance Programme, as well as free car parking.

“We are committed to treating all of our employees fairly, and as part of this we have been working to standardise our employment contracts. This means that from 1st April next year our private medical insurance scheme, which was open to staff who joined before 2006 will be closed. The change affects just 5% of our workforce and brings us in line with the rest of the healthcare sector.

“We recognise that some staff are disappointed by this decision, however a great number of staff affected have also said they understand the change is focused on consistency and fairness for our wider workforce.”

The withdrawal comes amid an ongoing "transformation" at the hospital, including a downsizing on patient beds and cost-saving measurse, as well as appointing a new chair and five new directors in 2020.