Hospital strike threat over privatisation bid

A London hospital is facing strike action over the privatisation of its blood-testing services.

Plans by King's College Hospital to set up a partnership with Guy's and St Thomas' and for-profit company Serco have been met with protest by the Unite union.

Its members will be balloted on a strike within the next fortnight amid fears patients will suffer under the new partnership.

Under the deal proposed by King's, the new company will take on existing pathology services worth tens of millions of pounds a year and employ nearly 1,000 staff. The aim is to have it operating by October 1.

King's said the changes were in the best interests of staff and that they would retain NHS pension and benefit rights if they moved to the new company.

But David Fleming, Unite's national officer for health, said: "There seems to be no rhyme or reason why a world-class pathology service that carries out two million tests a year and has an excellent reputation has to be hived off to the private sector. It smacks of the triumph of dogma over common sense, hence the industrial action ballot."

A spokeswoman for King's said: "King's pathology services are highly regarded, but we need to grow if we are to remain competitive. We are doing what is in the best interests of our staff and the pathology service. We have been successful in ensuring that our staff will remain NHS employees."