Nuffield Health has said it plans to ‘continually review’ a decision to implement reduced working hours and salaries for its staff in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The charitable hospital and wellbeing provider announced plans to cut working hours by 20% and pay by 10% for a large chunk of its staff at the end of last week. The measures apply primarily to head office staff but 11 of its 31 hospitals have also been included.
Like most private hospital groups, Nuffield signed a deal with NHS England at the end of March to turn its hospital capacity over to helping support the NHS response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, all of its 112 fitness and wellbeing clubs have been forced to temporarily close during the government lockdown.
A spokesperson for the charity said: ‘Nuffield Health, like many organisations, has been significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic with our fitness and wellbeing clubs closed and hospitals working to support the NHS. To protect our people’s jobs and the financial sustainability of the charity, we have taken the decision to try to avoid redundancies and take a more equitable approach by reducing working hours by 20%, alongside a 10% reduction in salary. The change will be effective from 1 July and will be reviewed on an ongoing basis.
‘The majority of our hospitals are working at full capacity to support the NHS and will be exempt from this change. We will continue to review in line with demand as our hospitals continue to fully support the NHS, as well as self-pay and insured patients.
‘As the UK’s largest healthcare charity, we remain optimistic about the future of the healthcare market. The challenges we are facing are short term until our full organisation reopens following the pandemic. With health and wellbeing at the top of everyone’s agenda, we believe we have an important role to play in supporting the recovery of the nation.’
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