I was quite taken aback when I saw one of my contacts on LinkedIn today mentioning this news article:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98y09n8201o
Whilst I noticed the word “could”, this isn’t a “given” yet, but the very fact that this has even been mooted amazes me; these people are in hospital for a reason, so whatever next?
Are we to expect other unemployed people in hospital to be visited by the same job centre staff, all on some metric to convert the sick and out of work into hospital.
Bearing in mind recent announcements by the government under the “work to pay” scheme, which employer is going to take on a member of staff who is in a mental health clinic and risk the potential for them to go onto sick leave as soon as they go on the payroll? It certainly isn’t something a SME can risk.
Does the hospital or clinic have the right to refuse entry to these government staff if it is going to be mandatory ?
Do either the patient and/or their family have any right to refuse these job centre staff the right to visit the bedside ?
How will the job centre staff work around the patient’s medical needs ?
Are the job centre staff going to be trained in how to deal with people who have mental issues?
Are the job centre staff going to be endemnified if they cause any emotional or other damage to the patient?
If you have been a patient in a mental crisis, how do you think you would have felt if you were told that you had to meet with a job centre employee to discuss your future employment ?
Finally, I have to wonder what we are becoming as a society if we are not protecting those who are sick; have we lost our empathy ? Or is this just the brain wave to respond to the growing needs of those on disability ? Are we not better as a society to best prepare our population to be the best version of themselves and develop resilience skills to help through the bad times in life ?
