Cash crunch forces NHS hospital to trim staff by 1,000

Cash crunch forces NHS hospital to trim staff by 1,000

	Published : Sat, 18 Mar 2006 11:05 By : David Simms Print this Story

LONDON: State-run hospital, the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, announced it is cutting 1,000 jobs to prevent a 30-million-pound deficit next year. The NHS hospital has started a 90-day consultancy with its 6,500 staff over the issue.

If the proposal goes through, it will the among the largest cutbacks across the NHS. The north Midlands-based hospital said it will make all efforts to maintain patient services while introducing cost-saving measures. These would include reducing the time patients spent in the hospital and increasing the number of operations carried out as day-cases.

The lay-off may involve 250 nurses, 15 consultants, 120 midwives, 200 health-care support staff, 73 scientists, 180 administrators, 63 senior managers, 30 therapists and 60 ancillary staff.

A hospital spokesperson said the hospital is expecting a 15.5-million-pound deficit this financial year, but this could be 30 million pounds if no cutbacks are implemented.

He said the government's payment by results system, which is part of an effort to make hospitals more market-driven, had contributed to the deficit, along with higher salaries and internal inefficiencies.

As an immediate measure, the hospital has asked consultants to minimise the number of nights patients stay in hospital, while interviews of newly trained nurses have been postponed.

The NHS is facing a projected 623-million-pound overspend this year in its 76-billion-pound budget. Health secretary Patricia Hewitt had said she would engage "turnaround teams" of financial specialists at the University Hospital of North Straffordshire and 17 other health trusts, which are facing the "greatest financial risks".

The NHS lost its chief executive, Nigel Crisp, last week and many see his exit as a result of the unmanageable deficit in the organisation.

Hewitt said the cash crisis at the hospital will not affect patients. She said the hospital's managers were clear that efficiency savings, such as reducing administration costs and increasing the number of day operations, could be made without affecting patient care.

She also denied that the current reforms had caused the present financial problems. These reforms, when fully implemented could solve these problems, she said.

She said the problems cropped up because the hospital was carrying out more work than it could handle.