Union to decide dates for NHS supply workers strike

LONDON, Sep 15 (Reuters) NHS workers will decide strike dates today which could seriously disrupt medical and food supplies to hospitals across England.

Representatives from five NHS Logistics depots will meet union leaders to decide what form of industrial action to take after members voted in favour of strike action.

The staff are protesting against plans to outsource the medical supplies service to German-owned courier company DHL and American healthcare contractor Novation.

Around 1,650 staff from NHS Logistics and the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA) are due to be transferred to DHL on October 1 under a government plan unveiled earlier this month.

NHS Logistics was established in 2000 to source and deliver products ranging from food to bedding and medical equipment to hospitals, doctors' surgeries and other NHS organisations.

The government acknowledges the service has been a success, but says the NHS will save 1 billion pounds under the terms of a 10-year contract with DHL by expanding the range of products supplied.

The DHL contract will cover around half a million different products, including catering supplies, stationery, bed linen and medical supplies on which the NHS spends around 3.7 billion pounds a year.

NHS Logistics and PASA only supply around 51,000 products and account for just 1.1 billion pounds of NHS services spending.

''The arrangement means substantial scope for bringing down the prices of the goods that NHS trusts buy,'' said Health Minister Andy Burnham.

''We estimate that around one billion pounds which trusts currently spend on such goods could be released over the course of the contract -- money which then can be reinvested in patient care.'' Public services union Unison said it made no sense to sell off NHS Logistics, describing it as a ''highly competitive, award-winning organisation.'' Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis said staff taking industrial action were ''not trouble-makers, not hardliners but workers who care deeply about the NHS''.

He said Unison has drawn up emergency plans to cover life and limb, but any strike action will have an immediate impact on hospital supplies.

Reuters VJ VP0540