Public health staff who have been working from home in Tayside were last night threatening to defy a direct order to return to their desks.
Some plan to continue working from home and are seeking legal advice with a view to challenging the decision.
Around 100 staff will be affected by the request to attend work at their usual base today.
Director of public health Dr Drew Walker told staff he was “very aware this will be disappointing for many colleagues” and said he “had hoped it would not be necessary”.
One staff member in the public health directorate said: “We’re being asked to not take our own advice.
“The best way we can support our acute care colleagues is to not add to the infection rate.
“We’re going to be in direct contravention of government guidelines which state that you should only go in to work if you cannot work from home.
“We’ve proven we are just as efficient – if not more so – and effective working at home.”
In his email to staff on Thursday afternoon, Dr Walker said: “NHS Tayside is very clear in its instruction that currently staff are required to attend work at their usual base unless under government direction regarding the coronavirus pandemic to remain at home for reasons of underlying health conditions, shielding, self isolation or child care issues.
“I realise some staff have been redeployed to temporary bases or are currently on secondment elsewhere, and some staff have a pre-existing agreement that home is their base for some or all of their working week; they too are not affected by this instruction.
“Given these exemptions I now ask that directorate staff work from their usual base as of Friday, 10 April 2020.
“I am very aware that this will be disappointing for many colleagues, and I do understand that disappointment, but this is NHS Tayside policy currently, and we cannot deviate from that.
“I’m very sorry to be writing to you all about this – I had hoped it would not be necessary.
“If and when Board policy changes I will let you know immediately.”
Scottish Conservative North East Scotland MSP Bill Bowman said: “I’m shocked NHS Tayside has emailed its staff demanding them to come back into work – it shows a complete disregard for their wellbeing and I can totally understand their frustration at being told to do this.
“It is yet another example of poor staff communication from NHS Tayside.
“It’s extremely worrying staff have been told to come to work despite the fact they have already shown that with the right equipment they can work remotely.”
NHS Tayside director of workforce George Doherty said all NHS Tayside staff are classed as key workers and this has been the case since the restrictions on movement in the UK were announced nearly three weeks ago.
He said: “As key workers, staff are expected to attend work as normal and thousands upon thousands of our staff have been coming to work every day to ensure essential and critical services continue to be delivered in these most challenging of times.
“Some staff may feel that their role is not classed as essential at this point and that they can carry out their role from home. However, the Covid-19 demands on our health services are rising every day and we must be able to support essential services and this includes the redeployment of some staff into different roles.
“This is happening already and this week we have seen dental staff retrained to deliver a community phlebotomy service, sterile services staff working in the laundry and sewing room, health records staff have redeployed to support our portering services and staff who would usually deliver training are now actively supporting the face-fitting of masks for our frontline teams.
“We have seen so many staff going the extra mile in the past few weeks as NHS Tayside has stepped up its response to COVID-19 and I would want to acknowledge the fantastic response of our staff.
“From delivering the ‘hospital in a hospital’ at Ninewells to the development of our Community Assessment Hubs by GPs and primary care teams, these changes have been supported by an army of staff who are carrying out tasks which are different to their day-to-day work.
“There are policies in place for home working and we have issued guidance to staff on how they can request home working in exceptional circumstances.”
