No major job losses, says NHS Employers

NHS Employers has said that reports of major job losses are inaccurate and that few NHS staff are being made redundant.

A survey of trust HR departments by NHS Employers revealed that redundancies will be few, even in trusts that have already announced that it will shed staff. It claimed that where trusts were able to provide details, they said “only a handful” of staff would be made redundant – in contrast to reports of thousands of redundancies.

Sian Thomas, deputy director of NHS Employers, said: “We feel it is important to set the record straight because of the likely damage to staff morale and public confidence of persistent inaccuracies and speculation.”

“Locally and nationally, employers are working very closely with staff and their representative organisations, consulting on any changes and ensuring as much as possible that valuable staff skills are retained and patient care is not compromised,” she added.

On Tuesday, Peter Hincliffe of Unison, the trade union, said he feared for at least 800 job losses in England’s north-west, due to the Pennine Acute NHS trust’s deficit of over 21 million pounds. He told BBC One’s North West Tonight: “Many staff in the NHS work part-time, so if a lot of those job losses fall within the part time sector we believe that far more people than 800 could be affected.” The trust is responsible for four hospitals, including Fairfield General Hospital, North Manchester General, Rochdale Infirmary and Royal Oldham.

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