NHS chiefs set to shed 300 jobs as trust prepares for austerity

Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust, which runs mental health and learning disability services across the city, has drawn up proposals to axe 300 posts in the next three years, saving 11.4m.

Officials hope to achieve the bulk of the job cuts in 2011-12, mainly through natural turnover.

But 1.2m has been earmarked for redundancies as a workforce review group is set up to co-ordinate vacancy management, redeployment and job losses.

Bosses also hope to cut staff absence by up to a third and reduce bank and agency staff costs as part of a drive to save money at the organisation which has around 2,800 employees.

The bulk of the cuts are likely to affect non-medical staff but positions for doctors and nurses will go.

NHS trusts across the country are drawing up plans for job cuts as years of massive investment in NHS services ends. The coalition Government has pledged to ring-fence budgets from the axe in other parts of the public sector but in practice the NHS will still face real cuts in funding.

Staff account for around 70 per cent of NHS costs and job losses are an inevitable part of efforts to find efficiency savings, with bureaucrats expected to bear the initial brunt of cuts as the Government plans a reorganisation likely to lead to the axeing of strategic health authorities and most of the work carried out by primary care trusts.

Around 140,000 people are employed by the NHS in Yorkshire – around one in eight of the total workforce.

Hospital chiefs in Leeds have already set out plans to lose 700 posts over the next four years.

Brian Wheeler, regional organiser for the union Unison, said he hoped job losses in Leeds would not hit frontline services.

"There is significant pressure on trusts and whilst I think the Government will do their best to protect the NHS, I anticipate it won't be immune to budget reductions," he said.

"Whatever pressures the trust have, the priority must be to maintain frontline services."

Guy Musson, chief financial officer at the partnerships trust, said: "Due to the financial challenges facing the whole NHS, we are looking at ways to increase our productivity and efficiency, whilst continuing to deliver the highest standards of patient care.

"The proposed reduction in the number of posts will be made over the next three years, the majority of which are expected to come from the reduction of recruitment to vacant posts and the redeployment of staff.

"Whilst we cannot rule out the need for redundancies, every effort will be made to ensure they will be kept to an absolute minimum."

In a foreword to the trust's annual plan, chief executive Chris Butler said recent investments in services had enhanced services for patients.

The organisation remained financially stable but he admitted the future was "very challenging" .

He added: "Assuming that we will keep a steady hand on the tiller in using our resources to best effect, our focus over the next year remains on still more improvements in the quality of the services we provide."

Preparations for job losses come as the Government began wielding the axe, announcing yesterday NHS targets will be scrapped and management costs slashed by nearly half.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said GPs would no longer need to see patients within 48 hours, while the four-hour maximum A&E waiting time is being relaxed.

Mr Lansley said the changes would help to cut the management bill for Primary Care Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities.