10:08am Friday 4th August 2006
By Margaret Smith
NURSES, therapists and employees working with children, adults and elderly people at community level will lose their jobs in a effort to cut local NHS spending.
MP David Lidington, pictured below, speaking for the county's five MPs, said: "This is potentially devastating for primary care.
"It involves disabled people, old people, children and dying people the unglamorous side of health care.
"The Government is spending billions more on health. But where is it, and why are our services being cut to ribbons?"
The cuts, aimed at dropping £2.5million, or seven per cent, from the pay bill, are being proposed by three primary care trusts in Bucks; Wycombe, Chiltern South Bucks, and Vale of Aylesbury.
A detailed document has been sent to staff, who have until September 13 to comment.
But £2.5million is just the tip of the iceberg. The three trusts overspent by £18million last year on their £550million budgets and more savings will have to be found in other ways.
The PCTs pay hospital bills and one method will involve so-called demand management, so that fewer people are sent to hospital.
MPs John Bercow, Cheryl Gillan, Paul Goodman, Dominic Grieve and David Lidington said in a joint statement: "We are shocked at these proposals and gravely concerned at the effect they would have on local residents."
They will meet the three chief executives in September.
Mr Lidington, MP for Aylesbury, said cuts to children's therapy would mean children requiring physiotherapy at home would be at risk.
School nursing cuts would mean minimal protection for children and the number of beds at community hospitals was already being cut, he added.
And fewer nurses to care for people at home and fewer community beds would lead to an increase in delayed discharges from hospitals.
The out-of-hours service where nurses visited people at home would not be available after 11.30pm. A district nurse had told him that after 11.30pm she had to advise people to go to A&E.
Yet, he pointed out it was Government policy that there should be more care in the community and closer to people's homes.
Lynda Lake-Stewart, acting chief executive of Vale of Aylesbury PCT told the Free Press the strategic health authority had said the trusts must reduce their pay bill. Once back in balance the trusts would be able to stop fire-fighting and put their efforts into developing services.
Cheryl Gillan, MP for Chesham and Amersham, pictured left, said she was furious that beds at the Waterside Unit and Chalfont and Gerrards Cross community hospital were being cut.
Sophie Coppel, spokeswoman for the Department of Health, said: "We are reassured that the Trust is consulting with staff on this issue and has committed to keeping redundancies to a minimum."
PROPOSED cuts to the community care pay bill of Buckinghamshire's three primary care trusts involve axing the number of overall jobs by around 56 and employing larger numbers of less skilled staff.
The £35.7million pay bill for community, district and school nurses, therapists and care workers has to come down by £2.5million.
The report detailing this comes with a warning that changes may reduce patient care and cause stress to staff, to say nothing of public alarm.It may lead to bed blocking, more people going to hospital for treatment, loss of specialist workers and a significant impact on some children.
Three PCTs merge into one county-wide trust in October and the report says one system will maximise efficiencies.
* Community nurses The 55 full-time equivalent nurses in Wycombe, down to 48; Chiltern South Bucks, from 61 to 55; Vale of Aylesbury from 78 to 65. Overall down 26 per cent.
* Intermediate care Wycombe; up from 15 to 21, because there is a low level of service; Chiltern South Bucks, small rise; Aylesbury Vale, down six. Overall numbers same. Savings achieved by changing the skills mix.
* Out of hours nursing Not enough staff, so will not run after 11.30pm, though some people who need an early morning visit may get one.
Staff numbers remain the same overall * Physiotherapy Savings by changing skills mix. Staff may have to move area to ensure equality of provision.
n Musculo skeletal physiotherapy Eight cuts overall, skills changes and staff required to move (Wycombe loses 18, Chiltern gains 11 * Podiatry Four cuts; Wycombe loses nine, Aylesbury nine; CSB gets five * Speech therapy; grading changes to make savings.
* Independent living exhibition at Stoke Mandeville Hospital Shuts end of August * Children's health visitors and school nurses Nineteen jobs go from 137.
n Children's speech therapy Two cuts from 42. Staff to be redeployed to ensure an even spread.
* Child psychologists Five staff will now be spread across the three trusts with some cuts in top grades.
* Children's occupational therapy Moves, to give an countywide spread. Wycombe loses four.
* Children's physiotherapy No cuts in 12 staff but savings on gradings.
* Translations services Goes * Community hospitals Decision taken to cut bed numbers Chalfont and Gerrards Cross, 29 to 10; Waterside, Amersham, 21 to 15; Marlow, 13 to six; Thame, no change 12; Buckingham, 17 to 12.
Florence Nightingale House, a hospice for terminally ill people at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, loses six of 12 beds.
A modern matron will run Chalfont, Marlow and Waterside
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