Twenty senior posts to go as NHS trust looks for savings

Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which has to make £95m budget savings over five years, says it is trying to make the cuts “while protecting quality and safety for patients”.

The trust’s chief executive Phil Morley said: “The restructure involves 75 people and we will be taking out 20 posts altogether. Some will be re-deployed, but there may be some people who don’t have a role. We are trying to take costs out safely while protecting quality and safety for patients.

“The pain has to be felt first of all in non-clinical services.”

The restructure has seen the hospital switch from seven business units to four “health groups”, focusing on surgery, family and women and clinical support services, led by a senior doctor, nurse and manager.

Mr Morley, who came to the hospital last October from Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “It is part of the policy that the coalition Government is trying to promote to put medics at the heart of the system, hence their idea of consortiums.”

The cuts would save £250,000 this year and £750,000 by the end of the financial year.

He added: “We don’t want anyone to be forcibly made redundant but at the end of the day, there might be one or two posts where we don’t have other options.”

Earlier this year it emerged that the hospital was planning to close 300 beds over five to 10 years.

Unions raised concerns, saying the cuts amounted to 20 per cent of capacity

Unison branch secretary Thelma Gray said there was a “level of uncertainty and concern throughout the trust for all employees”, adding: “Will it protect services and care? I don’t see how it can because it’s a money-saving gesture.

“There’s a whole level of people who don’t yet know what the jobs will be and what they will be paid.

“This has not been consulted on properly.”