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Editorial Graham Scott EDITOR

@NSeditor

Goodwill in the NHS is a one-way street The NHS runs on goodwill. Every day thousands of nurses, midwives and healthcare support workers work extra hours, skip breaks and go the extra mile to keep the health service running. In return, you may receive a ‘thank you’ from your manager or expressions of gratitude from patients, but rarely will you see any extra in your pay packet. Sadly this goodwill appears increasingly to be a one-way street. The evidence of this comes from startling reports compiled by the RCN of how managers respond on realising that staff have been overpaid. The amounts involved are often trivial, and it would be cheaper to write them off than employ staff to recover them. But many organisations do not seem to care about the personal consequences for the individuals affected.

BY ALL MEANS SEEK RECOVERY OF THE PUBLIC’S MONEY, BUT DO SO WITH COMPASSION

For example, one RCN member who had been overpaid was on sick leave and receiving only statutory sick pay of £80 a week. This was reduced to nothing when the employer exercised its right to recover money it was owed. This attitude to staff welfare is completely unacceptable. Nursing staff are paid poorly enough, and if someone else in the organisation makes a mistake in their favour, there is no need to pursue repayment with such vigour. If the amount is small, write it off. When greater sums are involved, by all means seek recovery of the public’s money, but do so with compassion. The NHS pay system, particularly in relation to rewarding unsocial hours, is far from simple, so mistakes are inevitable. The RCN is gathering evidence from across the UK of employers’ various approaches to dealing with overpayments, with a view to drawing up best practice guidance. Hopefully that will help eradicate some pretty shoddy practices from managers and introduce a renewed sense that goodwill has to work both ways. See news page 7

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