This Friday (17 July) Unite members will join their sister unions to demonstrate against plans by Royal United Hospitals Bath, Great Western Hospitals and Salisbury NHS Foundation Trusts to outsource NHS bank staffing services.

When: Friday 17 July 2026, 09:00 Where:

Outside the main entrance, Royal United Hospitals Bath, Combe Park, Bath, BA1 3NG

(Press are welcome to attend and photos will be available on request)

The three NHS trusts are planning to outsource the service to private company Pulse (Bank Partners), part of the Acacium Group, from 1 August. This is effectively a fire and rehire tactic, which will remove NHS bank workers from NHS employment and require them to re-register with a private provider if they want to continue working bank shifts.

This will force the transfer of core NHS staffing functions to a private, profit-driven company while reducing staff terms and conditions. The decision has been pushed through without a published risk assessment or equality impact assessment, while Unite has not been given clear evidence that outsourcing will deliver genuine savings.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "The way these NHS trusts are treating their overworked and underpaid workers is a disgrace. They need to rethink their plans and start treating these workers with respect. They will have Unite’s full support for as long as it takes."

An NHS staff bank is a pool of temporary, on-demand workers - including nurses, doctors, and administrative staff - used to fill staffing shortages within NHS trusts. Around 200 Unite members will be impacted by the plans and many bank workers are women and from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds.

Other concerns raised include the fact that staff will lose NHS pension benefits with employer contributions falling from 23.7 per cent to around 6 per cent for many affected workers. Bank staff will no longer be part of the NHS workforce, losing continuity of NHS employment and associated protections.

NHS temporary staffing banks are essential to keeping hospitals safely functioning. Unite warns that damaging staff retention will increase vacancies and force trusts to rely more on expensive private agencies, negatively impacting patient care and increasing costs.

Meanwhile, Acacium Group, a private equity-owned company, has recently suffered a downgrade in its credit rating and there have been warnings about its financial sustainability.

Unite regional officer Harry Richards said: "Unite is entirely opposed to these plans that will have a detrimental impact on our members' jobs, pay and conditions. "The trusts have failed to have even provided full transparency about their plans. As an absolute minimum they need to agree that NHS terms and conditions will be protected."

ENDS

Notes to editors

For media enquiries ONLY please contact Unite press officer Natasha Wynarczyk on 07970081524

Email: natasha.wynarczyk@unitetheunion.org