NHS IT staff are growing increasingly concerned about the
absence of health informatics jobs from the government's Agenda for
Change pay-rating exercise.
There are more than 20,000 staff working in NHS IT, according to
the NHS Information Authority.
Agenda for Change initially identified some 500 separate
non-clinical jobs in the NHS, ranging from cleaners to
radiographers, and including key IT jobs.
However, no job definitions have yet been delivered for IT staff.
"We don't know what the hell is going on. There are no profiles for
our jobs," one IT professional in an East London NHS trust told
Computer Weekly. "We don't know what is going to happen with the
national programme for IT. We are worried about our pay, pensions
and future."
A Department of Health spokeswoman told Computer Weekly that IT
staff were covered in the Agenda for Change Job Evaluation
handbook, but the only post clearly identified is for trust-level
IT directors.