A LOCAL B&NES councillor is calling for public support and to join in action to fight changes affecting RUH staff.

Residents, NHS staff, and trade unions will gather on July 17 at 9am at the Royal United Hospital Bath (RUH) to protest against the decision affecting the B&NES hospitals to outsource the entire NHS Temporary Staffing Bank to private equity firm Pulse/Acacium.

Bath and North East Somerset councillor for Radstock Ward, Cllr Lesley Mansell said: “This is an unsafe, unaccountable decision that puts patients and staff at risk. With new evidence showing Pulse/Acacium is financially unstable, the Secretary of State must intervene immediately.

“The temporary staffing bank is the backbone of safe ward staffing across Bath, Salisbury, and Swindon hospitals. Outsourcing it removes NHS control over the workforce that keeps wards open.

“When staff lose NHS pension rights and fair terms, they leave. Hospitals are then forced to rely on emergency commercial agencies at double the cost, increasing rota gaps and destabilising patient care.”

The councillor says the change was pushed through without scrutiny by local authorities or the hospital’s Council of Governors with no risk assessment, no financial benefit figures, and no full Equality Impact Assessment were produced, despite the decision potentially affecting thousands of frontline workers.

Up to 85 percent of bank workers are permanent NHS employees who rely on extra shifts to survive the cost-of-living crisis are at risk.

Under the new contract, they lose their 23.7 percent NHS pension contribution unless they work in the exact same role as their main job; an impossible restriction for part-time and flexible workers, the councillor says.

Staff will be reduced to taking a 6 percent private pension, slashing long-term security and undermining retention.

She added: “This does not save the NHS; it raids the pension pots of workers.

“The Trust ignored statutory consultation duties, bypassed unions, RUH governors, and local authorities.”

The Labour Group at B&NES has formally requested Ministerial Intervention, asking the Secretary of State for Health to call in the decision under Schedule 10A of the NHS Act 2006.

They say all four statutory criteria for intervention have been clearly met, including serious concerns about the process, patient safety, and the regional impact on jobs at three acute hospitals.

B&NES Health Scrutiny Committee has unanimously agreed to do the same, recognising that the Trust bypassed statutory scrutiny and removed any possibility of resolving the issue locally.

The Joint Union Committee, representing 13 trade unions, has also called for ministerial action, citing risks to staff pensions, retention, and safe staffing levels.

Cllr Mansell continued: “On July 17, our community will stand together to demand that this unsafe outsourcing is halted immediately.

“We are calling for the contract to be paused, fully scrutinised, and replaced with a safe, transparent, NHS-run staffing model that protects patients, protects staff, and protects our local hospitals.

“This is our NHS. It must remain accountable, safe, and publicly run.”