Chris Walker is a frontline nurse in a Fife hospital ward and represents the region’s 2500 members of the Royal College of Nursing.
He is in a prime position to take the pulse of the NHS locally, while having an eye on the state of the service nationally.
The RCN’s lead steward in Fife, Mr Walker is blunt about the budget crisis facing Britain, but determined the sick and vulnerable will not bear the brunt of the consequences.
“We have got to appreciate the country is in a big hole,” he said.
“We have all got to try to come together to resolve that hole, but that doesn’t mean it has to be to the detriment of patients and staff.”
The RCN launched its Frontline First campaign earlier this month, calling on members to “speak out against the cuts that impact on patient care, expose where they see waste and highlight innovation and new ideas.”
That came against a background of health authorities across the UK slashing budgets and reducing posts.
NHS Tayside is looking to save £30 million this year by cutting around 500 whole time equivalent posts, over 150 of them nurses.
The situation does not appear to be so drastic in Fife, where the health authority needs to save £9.7 million to break even this year and is looking to cut 54 whole time equivalent posts, 29 of them nurses.
But it is 18 months before the extension at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy is expected to be complete and Mr Walker does not know what the staffing implications for his ward and others will be when the transfer takes place.
He said that in theory the change is supposed to deliver a better service but he says that takes more than a shiny new ward and lots of modern equipment.
“If we have the same amount of patients, we would expect to have at least the same amount of staff,” said Mr Walker.
“That doesn’t mean that is the way it is going to pan out a year to 18 months from now.”
Asked if accepting that the country is “in a big hole” and facing a budget crisis, he and his members would accept cuts, he replied, “You cannot accept cuts. If you accept cuts what happens is the cuts become bigger cuts and bigger cuts.”
He said cuts to frontline services would be resisted to protect patient care.
“That is what comes first, patient services and patient care.”
He said Fife was facing turmoil over the next few months and there would be problems to tackle related to the major extension to the Victoria Hospital.
“As with any new build, when you actually start putting patients in there, things are not going to go exactly as planned,” he said.