HOSPITAL workers in north-west England are to launch a five-day strike on Thursday against outsourcing plans that are “bad for patients and bad for the staff that support them.”

Public-sector union Unison general secretary Dave Prentis has written to Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust bosses setting out workers’ concerns about proposals to transfer 900 cleaners, porters and caterers to wholly owned subsidiary WWL Solutions Ltd.

Trusts outsource services for tax advantages, Unison research has found, but the new companies have created two-tier workforces with worse pay and pensions for transferred staff.

Workers have already staged two 48-hour walkouts over the past month against the plans, picking up support from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and local Labour MPs Lisa Nandy, Jo Platt and Yvonne Fovargue.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: “There’s no good reason for this outsourcing — it’s bad for patients and bad for the staff that support them.

“As the NHS approaches its 70th birthday, it deserves better than being salami-sliced into different organisations.

“The NHS is the envy of the world, but it won’t stay that way by breaking up its staff and services.”

Unison North West regional organiser Lizanne Devonport said that her members will do “everything they can” to stop the privatisation of the NHS.

Unite regional officer Keith Hutson, whose members are staging a 24-hour strike before joining the Unison members in walking out for five days from 6am on Thursday, hailed the workers as a “core part of the NHS family,” saying their jobs could not be “hived off.” 

WWL Solutions claimed that the unions’ demands would lead to further job losses.

The trust board is due to meet this evening to make its final decision on the outsourcing.