Biomedical Science Professional Managers Mairiead MacLennan and Jenny Smith look at the impact staff demographics can have on the delivery of laboratory services.
The extended retirement age is having an impact on NHS staff and those working in laboratories are no exception. Shift patterns impact significantly on individuals who perform 12-hour shifts, which the unions advise against.
For biomedical scientists, there are a variety of shift patterns in place, dependent on the requirement for an out-of-hours service. Most blood sciences laboratories need to be staffed by at least three people carrying out all-night sample processing. Other laboratory services, such as microbiology, provide on site 24-hour services. Some larger microbiology departments are staffed by one or two biomedical scientists, but many are staffed with biomedical scientists and support workers for an extended day, then a biomedical scientist provides on-call service from home at night.
Severe pressure
The biomedical scientist who is on call from home may be woken from sleep to attend the laboratory to undertake critical tasks. Some departments experience such busy on-call services that the biomedical scientist is, in effect, working 12-hour shifts before managing to get home. Compensatory rest on the day following on call is variable across departments, with some departments relying on staff attending work the following day, if not called out after midnight.
If you are fit, healthy and resilient, this is manageable, but otherwise this sleep disturbance can impact on the general health of individuals. The knock-on effect can lead to absence through stress or other ill health.
Some shifts are under severe pressure due to the lack of experienced staff. The knock-on affect of compensatory rest is shortages of experienced staff on core day shifts. With the additional requirement to demonstrate substantial financial savings, the likelihood of securing increases to staffing cohorts is extremely low.
We are training excellent new recruits, however, that also takes time and it needs a full cohort of staff to release the trainers to meet the requirement. Some departments have as many as 20% of staff in primary specialist training. Experienced staff tend not to move because the nearest alternative would mean uprooting house and home. There are high numbers of experienced staff currently being lost, mostly to early retirement, and with this we are also losing their extensive knowledge and training expertise from departments.
To read the full article please click here.