Unions hit out at hospital job losses (From Bucks Free Press)

Unions hit out at hospital job losses

10:11am Friday 30th July 2010 in

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UNION leaders today hit out at forthcoming hospital job losses, warning against a 'slash and burn' approach to redundancies.

Steve Bell, spokesman for the Unison union, spoke after Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust said frontline jobs could go.

He said: “The NHS is not safe in our political party’s hands. We need to campaign to defend the health service.”

He said the crisis had its root in Bucks getting 17 per cent less cash than the national average and pledged a public meeting in High Wycombe to oppose cuts.

The trust runs Wycombe, Amersham and Stoke Mandeville Hospitals Royal College of Nursing South East regional director Patricia Marquis said: “Confirmation of job losses is of great concern.

“It is imperative that Buckinghamshire Hospital NHS Trust does not adopt a slash and burn approach to redundancies that affect the quality of patient care and the available range of treatments.

“The Trust must consider the impact on patient care of these post closures. The danger is trusts take short term measures to meet financial challenges.

“We look forward to meeting with the Trust and other unions on July 30 to begin discussions on these proposals.”

The trust said the move is needed as it has to slash £18m to £20m out of its £307m budget, of which £180m goes on staffing.

It hopes £15m can be saved from using fewer temporary staff – but chief executive Anne Eden said employee jobs would go too.

New figures show more expensive temporary workers rose from 80 to 313 from 2008/09 to 2009/10 – but permanent staff fell from 4,010 to 3,855.

This saw redundancy payments rise from £46,000 to £637,000. It now has to cut total costs by 10 per cent and is almost £1m in the red this year, mostly because of temporary staff.

Yet Conservative Cllr Mike Appleyard, chairman of Buckinghamshire County Council’s health watchdog committee, said the trust was in a difficult position.

He said: “You would be pilloried for recruiting permanent staff knowing that, potentially, they could be asked to go within 18 months.”

Andrew Clark, chairman of the Buckinghamshire Local Involvement Network, the official NHS watchdog, said: “Any cuts they are forced to make must be absolutely essential.

“Where they do make the cuts they must be in areas that cause the least damage to patient safety and service.”

The coalition Government hopes to plough more cash into frontline services by axing primary care trusts, bodies which decide where NHS cash is spent. This job will go to GPs.

This week it was revealed the county PCT, NHS Buckinghamshire, will close by 2013. It is spending £720m this year and its senior managers bill is about £850,000.

Yet Mr Clark said: “It is not a massive bureaucracy that people seem to think it is. Most of the jobs are essential.”

The PCT broke even for the first time last year, partly by spending less on expensive hospital care. This saw clinics axed at Amersham Hospital.

Hospital trust and PCT chiefs this week said the county was well placed for GPs to take on the role as many family doctors were already buying care.