NHS chiefs ‘set to axe 50,000 jobs’

A study by False Economy, an anti-cuts campaign group, found that health trusts across the country were cutting staff or warning of job losses.

The TUC said the research “gives the lie” to Government claims that the NHS was safe in their hands.

The report detailed a series of cuts, including:

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, which expects to shed 1,013 full-time equivalent staff from 2010-15, including almost 50 doctors and dental staff, as well as 270 nurses, midwives and health visitors.

Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which is cutting 682 full-time equivalent posts between 2010 and 2013. A total of 110 posts have already gone.

University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust, which is forecasting a reduction of 1,349 full-time posts from 2011-15, some 22.5 per cent of its entire staff.

Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which expects to cut 461 full-time posts by 2015, a 16 per cent reduction including a 12 per cent cut in nurses, midwives and health visitors.

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, which is cutting 1,755 full-time posts in 2010-11, nearly a nine per cent reduction in one year, including 120 doctors and dentists, and 620 nurses.

Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, which plans to shed 1,115 full-time posts from 2011-14, mainly through natural turnover.

False Economy said the total number of confirmed, planned and potential NHS staff cuts across the country was more than 53,000, adding that more NHS trusts were expected to announce staff cuts over the next four months, including all health boards in Wales.

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, which supports False Economy, said: “False Economy’s new research on NHS job cuts gives the lie to Government claims that the NHS was safe in their hands.

“Not only are they reorganising the NHS in a way that strips out many of its founding principles, but also insisting on immediate cuts that will certainly harm front-line services.

“To echo Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, it does not get much more front line than that.”

Unison’s general secretary Dave Prentis said: “The Tories are not the party of the NHS – they are the party that will destroy our NHS.

“Losing 50,000 health workers will hurt. It’s only a matter of time before the toll of bed shortages and ward closures mount up.

“With fewer nurses on wards, the return of long waiting lists, and a rise in cancelled operations, patient care will be an early casualty.

“The Tories cannot ignore the mounting evidence that they have got it wrong on the health service, and wrong on recovery.

“They need to put the brakes on the cuts, and shelve the titanic re-organisation of the health service before it’s too late.

“Instead of sacrificing patients, the Tories should make the UK’s major banks pay their fair share in tax, and tackle the galling spectre of big City bonuses.”

Shadow Health Secretary John Healey said: “These cutbacks call into question the Tories’ handling of the health service.

“The Government is piling extra pressure on the NHS with its huge high-cost reorganisation and by breaking the Prime Minister’s pledge to give the NHS a real rise in funding next year.

“David Cameron promised to protect the NHS but cuts on this scale will hit patient care, and there’s a big risk that we will now see the NHS go backwards.

“After big improvements in the NHS with Labour, people are starting to find waiting times rise, operations postponed, services cut back and frontline posts frozen or cut.