A video of an NHS trust’s flamboyant head office complete with a £1,000 coffee machine, sleeping pods and a “great view” has triggered fury from doctors and nurses.
Barts Health, which covers hospitals in east London as well as St Bartholomew’s in the City, shared a TikTok video of its corporate office in Canary Wharf with the caption: “Things in our office that just make sense.”
The video, which has since been deleted, showed a luxury coffee machine, “wellbeing rooms” on each floor, free snacks and curved computer screens.
The high-rise, open-plan offices also featured digital screens displaying public transport updates, floor-to-ceiling windows and breakout pods for working or “snoozing”.
However, doctors working at Barts reacted angrily and compared the video with their own facilities.
One junior doctor shared a photo of a cramped locker room in the same trust. They wrote on Twitter: “Bags on the floor as ‘no lockers available for juniors’. This tiny room is the entirety of the space available to get changed into mandatory uniform/scrubs – nightmare at shift changeover.”
Another shared a picture of their “handmade rest facility” – a row of chairs with paper towels for a pillow.
The British Medical Association’s Junior Doctors Committee said it was “sobering” to see the “no expenses spared” approach in the trust’s corporate office. It wrote on Twitter:
The Tiktok shows “wellbeing rooms” on each floor with rugs, comfortable chairs, large canvas pieces of art, a Sage Barista Touch coffee machine that retails at £1,049, “an abundance of snacks” in front of a Barts Health Heroes “Equitable winner” trophy. Well, where is our equity?
— Junior Doctors (@BMA_JuniorDocs) October 9, 2022
They added that junior doctors at the trust have created a “joke ranking” of available seats, including bin lids.
Junior doctors will be balloted on Jan 9 2023 on proposed strike action.
Barts Health recently came under fire for proposing to cut pay for temporary staff by £10 per hour. Prof Charles Knight, the trust’s chief executive, said on Twitter the trust “did not handle this properly for all” and confirmed the move had been paused for further discussions.
A spokesman for Barts Health said: “We’re sorry for the offence caused, have deleted the video and will look for other ways to promote our trust as a place to work.
“Thanks to Barts Charity, we have improved wellbeing, facilities for all staff in our hospitals, including dedicated wellbeing hubs, refurbished restrooms, new lockers and bike racks. But we know we still have a long way to go.”
