It is less obvious than ever what implications the government’s reorganisation of the NHS will have on various parts of the health service. To begin with, it looked that the coalition would be doing away with the Primary Care Trusts, or PCTs, and putting local surgeries in control of their own budgets. The principle was that this would allow them to structure their own services. Under the umbrella-policy of Big Society, the reason for this is that localism and decentralisation is felt to be an inherently positive thing. GPs know their patients’ needs – which will vary from area to area – far better than top-down, centralised management. However, at the same time, the coalition stressed the need for savings. Front-line services would be protected, it promised, and the NHS budget would certainly not be cut, but efficiencies were necessary. What this meant for allied health jobs – such as jobs in radiography, speech therapies, counselling, jobs in occupational therapy and the like – wasn’t clear.
Now, whatever clarity there was has disappeared with the ‘listening process’ that has led to dissent among both politicians and health professionals, and far-reaching changes to the original reforms. This essentially means that the Sword of Damocles has not yet fallen, and the date of its falling may have been postponed for a few weeks or months – in other words, the only certainty at this point is uncertainty. This is terrible for people in those positions, since they are prevented from planning their futures. It’s not definite what the situation will be for them, either in the jobs they currently have or the career landscape that will arise at some point over the next year or two, when the reforms (whatever shape they take) are put through.
Those in allied health jobs would be forgiven for searching around for an escape route, and it’s well worth finding what’s out there. Check out one of the specialist job sites that deals with this niche, and hunt out those jobs in radiography or jobs in occupational health that you might need as a safety net. Also bear in mind that different places might deal differently with particular services. For example, in some areas counselling is delivered directly by the Primary Care Trust. In others, it is delivered by the individual GP surgeries. Knowing which is which could be useful if you think you might need to secure a new job at short notice.
Please visit http://www.abouthealthprofessionals.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.
http://www.abouthealthprofessionals.co.uk/
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