Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals staff told to pay up after payroll mistakes

The trust contracted out its payroll operation to a private company called McKesson after years of handling it in house.

Since then, the Daily Echo understands there have been several complaints from staff claiming they had been paid wrongly.

One employee, who asked not to be named, threatened McKesson with legal action a few weeks ago because her pay was wrong for the third time in a year. After contacting the company four times in 11 days, she told it to come up with around £500 or be taken to county court. The money was paid a few days later.

“It’s a total mess and has been going on since McKesson took over,” she said. “Across the trust, it’s difficult to find anyone who hasn’t been affected.”

She said staff who qualify for overtime or enhanced payments have to fill out a form which has to be signed off by a manager.

“They have been calculating enhanced payments wrongly. People have filled out the form as they were told to fill it out, but they’re now saying we’ve got to do it another way,” she claimed.

A spokesperson for the trust said: “We are aware that staff are encountering payroll problems. The trust has assigned a payroll liaison officer to work closely with these staff and liaise with McKesson to resolve these.”

A spokesperson for McKesson said its payroll accuracy was 99 per cent, adding: “McKesson is working closely with the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals with best endeavours to resolve the outstanding payroll issues promptly.”

A spokesperson for Poole Hospital, which has used McKesson since December 2008, said: “We are aware that there have been complaints about payroll from members of staff.

“We take these very seriously and have processes in place to resolve issues or errors relating to pay as efficiently as possible. We are working closely with McKesson to reduce the number of inaccuracies.”