The KU consultation farce continues. Vice-Commander Steven ‘Polyversity’ Spier has become obsessed in recent times with forcing big changes on the University by using the ‘consultation’ as a tool of top-down management. As we have said before, the tin-plated Admiral and his Senior Lack-of-Leadership Team have been using consultations more and more to impose their will, sucking the whole meaning out of the consultation as a genuine exercise.
Another example of KU’s consulmania has just reported and – no surprises here – decisions made before the consultation even began have been pushed through regardless, with the claim that staff were ‘consulted’ and their feedback was ‘incorporated’. The reality, of course, is that staff were given no genuine say in the matter.
In May, the Joint Faculty of Health and Social Care (FHSC) issued a proposal to relocate 7 nursing staff and one HPL currently based at St. George’s University London (SGUL), to KU’s Kingston Hill campus. The proposal was that those staff affected would be based at the Kingston Hill campus, but would also be available to work ‘as required’ from SGUL or any other place as directed by their kind-hearted bunch of Managers. The launch of the consultation and all its aspects was handled by the Head of Nursing Dr. Julia Gale, or ‘Doc Fail’ as her underlings privately call her.
The outcome of the consultation has now been made available and it is, er, painful reading. Far from being open to any alternatives suggested by staff, the relocation of the nurses ‘will progress as planned’. So there! Take the medicine or else, you suckers. It is democracy in action, North Korean style. Kingston Hill campus will be the ‘main contractual base’ of the 7 nursing staff and the HPL from 23rd August, 2021. KU has agreed to continue to help with individual costs for travel and so on, but just for one year! How generous (not). One nurse who has witnessed all the ruthlessness with which the ‘consultation’ has been carried has told Dissenter that there was a like it or lump it attitude towards the nurses by managers, and the whole thing has left a very sour taste back at St. George’s. But many nurses are too frightened to speak out and have their say because they are fearful over what this might do to their future career prospects.
The country has owed a huge debt to nurses during the pandemic and they work exceptionally hard for little pay. The Gold Commander was happy to arrange photo opportunities for himself with nurses and also covid vaccination staff, milking it for all it was worth. But it is clear Kingston University managers are not interested in the real needs of FHSC staff, and the consultation used here is yet another example of the Spiersy ‘We say, you obey’ approach to management. We can also reveal that St. Georges will be in the Uni news again very soon, and it will be a major upset. Prof. Spier-spin will, as usual, keep a safe distance from it all and hide away in his Bunker. He has asked two Deans to prepare the announcement instead.