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Recognition of musculo skeletal injury especially among health staff and care givers, is being given a higher priority around the globe. In some countries legislation is being passed recognising the need for standards to protect people from needless pain, suffering & permanent injury.

Highly skilled, qualified specialists are effectively addressing this problem in many countries, many using resources and expert advice from the UK to assist in their quest for safer working.

So why has the United Kingdom NHS decided to ignore this problem? These highly specialist professionals were at one time recognised for their very important contribution to employee and patient safety. They were paid appropriately as the skilled clinical specialists that they are, so what's the problem?

There seems to have been a shift of culture and attitude in recent times, with an increasing amount of managers being employed in NHS Trusts, who it is reported have no idea about patient care and safety. As a consequence there has been a cutback in the number of moving and handling specialists, their pay, the expectation to work longer hours with less support, resources and staff.

Many believe the new NHS pay structure called Agenda for Change has been the final straw, where local panels of managers and union representatives have made decisions to downgrade these specialists. This downgrading has been dramatic in places, with a Moving and Handling Trainer vacancy recently advertised at £14,437-£17,257 (Band 3).

It is acknowledged by specialists that there should have been a nationally agreed level set for the two levels with the unions and the NHS. This has worked in other specialities and there is no reason why it couldn't have worked in moving and handling.

The consensus has been that the salary for a moving and handling trainer should be £23,230 - £36,962 (Band 6 - Band 7) (2007 salary). The lower band would be for people new into this speciality. For a moving and handling specialist advisor (many job titles) £35,760 - £51,494 (Band 8a - 8b).

As a consequence many of these specialists are leaving, some running their own practices, many just finding other types of employment. It is reported that this is now  reflected in the many vacancies advertised this year, you only have to see the list, realising that each organisation is only going to employ one or two of these specialists, then the 41 to date this year should be of concern. Some of these are offering reasonable salaries, still recognising the importance of these specialists. Many are offering derisory salaries and expecting clinical experts to apply, you can see a number  re-advertised this year as a result.

What are the unions and specialist groups in the UK doing about this crisis, after all haven't the RCN, CSP, COT, Unison, NBE, HSE, Back Care, all produced strict standards, that other countries are now emulating? Correspondence that we have seen appears to show a lack of interest and denial that there is a problem, even though their own standards have been eroded with many of their members potentially injured as a result.

Unfortunately, here at the Moving & Handling Network we don't have the resources that these organisations have to tackle this problem. What we will be doing is listing the NHS vacancies good and bad as they appear, although it won't solve the problem, it will highlight the trend. What we won't know is which vacancies were successfully filled, perhaps you do?  May 20, 2008. Moving & Handling Network UK Correspondent.

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