NHS Redundancy Watch

Updated July 2007

Alan Johnson     Alan Johnson replaces the dreadful Patricia Hewitt as Health Secretary in Gordon Brown's new cabinet. More than 20,000 jobs have already been lost in the NHS since Patricia Hewitt took office, and it still looks likely many more will follow due to the damage already inflicted.

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Below is a non exhaustive catalogue of Government failure

Suffolk Local:

Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust is in a right mess with 357 nursing, medical, admin and maintenance  jobs to be axed including 22 less doctors being employed and a 40% reduction of nurse specialists. 4 theatres to close, which could increase to 6. Elderly Care will be moved to another less desirable part of the hospital to reduce spending costs. Light bulbs have been removed to reduce electric costs. A reduction in mileage allowance for all essential staff users and the abolition of lease cars to all staff except directors and executives. Reduction of stock provision from 8 to 5 days. Reduce all but statutory training. Reduce sickness levels by lowering Bradford factor scores making it easy to sack sick staff which simply can't work. Increase car parking charges to staff by around 150%. Reduce facility time for trade union reps. AfC being readjusted to lower bands. All this has been brought about by continued over spending causing additional debt misery which must be paid back in full by April 2009.

Suffolk Mental Health Partnerships NHS Trust is breaking even but carries debts of around £4.5m which is mostly due to monies owed from various sources. The Trust currently has 53 jobs at risk (Jan 07) out of a possible 339 earlier last year 2006. 298 have been redeployed, 34 staff left, 2 made redundant and a further 5 have been issued with redundancy notices. However, 140 stealth jobs were cut for employees 65 years and over before the Age Discrimination Act became law in Oct 2006. Wards and an assessment unit at St Clements hospital in Ipswich have closed. Two club houses and the Hollies Enterprise have also been axed.

Suffolk PCT still carries massive debts of £30.9m as of March 31st 2007 following cuts of £4.6m. The 2007-2008 yearend forecast is for further cut backs of £18.9m of debt to be repaid, leaving an outstanding balance of £12.0m to be paid back by 2009. Closures: Walnuttree hospital in Sudbury is to close shortly. Hartismere Hospital in Eye is also to close. Bartlett hospital in Felixstowe has recently been closed. Despite all these closures, new directors, upper management and support teams have been created through restructuring and higher AfC pay bands than elsewhere.

Gt Yarmouth and Waveney PCT officially merged on Oct 1st 2006. The merger has combined debts totalling around £10m and the 830 staff have been warned of redundancies, but the official figures are still unknown. The PCT will operate from Waveney's existing HQ in Beccles, closing the run down offices in Gt Yarmouth. Doomed to failure as this PCT is too small and under funded. Patrick Stead hospital closed for what is said to be 3 months to save money.

West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust, has announced 200 jobs will go to help ease debts of £11.8m. Ward closures at Bury St Edmunds & District Hospital.

NHS Direct - Suffolk. Jobs have been axed at the Ipswich call centre in keeping with NHS Direct national policy of reducing staff.

* If your job is made redundant, check out the NHS 2006 redundancy payments
 

 

NHS job cut announcements for the rest of England:

Derriford Hospital in Plymouth announced in March, it was going to axe 200 jobs, but as things are more serious than first feared, that figure has now doubled to 400. The Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust which was expecting £8.1m deficit for this year, announced a further 16.9m overspend, totalling debts in August 2006 to £25m despite trimming £4.6m from the deficit by cutting out agency staff and cutting 50 beds. Managers said that they hoped to limit compulsory redundancies, and that most jobs would go by not filling vacancies. But unions said that staff were "very concerned" about cuts.
Iain Andrews of UNISON said: "The trouble is that we don't know where they're going to be.
"Management are still discussing the conditions, but our members are out there wondering if it's going to be them in the firing line."

James Paget Hospital, in Gorleston, Norfolk, announced it is to shed 100 jobs in a bid to reduce its overspend by £4m.

Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trust and the West Wiltshire Trust announce plan which could see the loss of more than 80 management and administration posts.

Kingston primary care trust in Surrey are expected to axe 90 jobs

Medway NHS Trust in Kent has confirmed it is shedding 160 posts in a move to save £11m in the next financial year.

Mid Staffordshire General Hospitals NHS Trust plans to cut more than 150 jobs, to save £10m next year.

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital announced that up to 450 jobs would go over the next 12 months to tackle a £14.8m shortfall.

North Staffordshire NHS Trust will be axing 1,000 jobs to battle a £30m deficit for next year - 750 of which would be compulsory at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust.

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust says 74 jobs including 21 specialist specialist nursing jobs are "at risk".

Nottingham: Up to 1,200 jobs will be axed following the merger of two major city hospitals in Nottingham. While it's expected more than 180 beds will also go in a shake-up of services.
Unions fear the cutbacks will affect patient care as frontline workers are among those affected. UNISON said the number of job losses announced in the NHS this year was now almost 20,000.

NHS Direct is expecting losses of 900 jobs which will be axed over the coming months.

Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals confirmed plans to axe 600 jobs in a bid to save £33 million.
The Trust, which has four hospitals in Oxford and Banbury, said it could not rule out compulsory redundancies, although it currently had 600 vacancies.
"This announcement nails the Government lie that the NHS crisis is restricted to just a few hospitals," said head of campaigns Geoff Martin.

Peterborough and Stamford NHS Trust wants to cut 185 jobs and plans to shut an operating theatre to save £2m.

Princess Royal Hospital and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital announced about 300 job losses are imminent at Shropshire's two main hospitals.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Trust in Woolwich says up to 100 jobs could go to save £10m.

Royal Free Hospital, announces 480 posts and 100 beds cut to save £25m and reduce a £13m deficit.

Royal United Hospital (RUH) in Bath is to axe up to 300 posts in the latest round of NHS job cuts. The 650-bed hospital, which employs 3,500 staff, must make £13.2m savings.

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust is to shed up to 800 jobs at its three Birmingham and Black Country sites to save up to £20m in the next year.

Selby and York Primary Care Trust announces jobs will have to go as part of a plan to tackle debts of £23.7m.

Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust is predicting 300 job cuts

Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, which manages Crawley Hospital and East Surrey Hospital, said it would be axing 400 jobs in a bid to reduce its £2 million-a-month overspend.
The trust has a long history of financial problems and forecasts its total debt for this financial year at £41.2 million and the Surrey and Sussex Strategic Health Authority says it is expecting an overall £83m deficit.

St Mary's Hospital, Sidcup, in Kent is predicting around 200 job cuts

University Hospital of North Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent is to cut 1,000 jobs from its 7,000-strong staff. An estimated 370 of the posts to be axed will be nurses and midwives.

Western General Hospital in Weston-super-Mare said it was closing 56 beds and cutting 60 jobs to deal with a £6m overspend.

Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital is expecting to make 300 job cuts to help tackle a £38m deficit.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS trust said it would have to shed 720 jobs over the next 12 months to balance the books after accumulating deficits worth £31.5m over several years. Staff affected will include nurses, doctors and administrative workers at hospitals in Worcester, Redditch and Kidderminster.

York Hospital is to cut 200 jobs in a move to save £2.5m. The savings from jobs are part of a wider £7m cost-cutting package.

Campaign group Health Emergency said more than 15,000 health jobs had now been axed across the country and warned that the number could double by the end of the summer.

08/07/07