Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust

100 jobs
Number of planned job losses

Announcement Date

28 June 2006

Employment effect (start)

Foreseen end date

Description

Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust is to make 100 redundancies as a result of improvements it is making to patient services. The trust employs 7,500, has five sites accross the city and is trying to cut a £27m deficit.The trust says it is making patient care more efficient and will therefore need fewer staff but union leaders disagree saying services will suffer. The trust said about 100 staff would be made redundant and about 450 would be redeployed to vacancies or other wards. The jobs would be going in administration, clerical and management posts with no loss of frontline services, the trust said. It said fewer staff would be needed in the future because of improvements that have been made to the speed and efficiency of care given to patients. Mark Hackett, trust chief executive, said: 'We must do everything we can to deliver the best possible care to our patients, even if it means that in some areas we have to let staff go.'

'I am confident that our patients are already starting to feel the benefits of the more efficient way we are running services. When they are called in to see a consultant, I think they are often surprised at how soon they get their appointment compared with a few years ago.'

Unions have criticised the cuts, claiming the changes would mean nurses would be swamped by paperwork.

Karen Jennings, head of health at Unison, said: 'The NHS is at the centre of a storm of job cuts, with 1,500 announced in the last two days alone.'

'It is outrageous that the first staff at Southampton knew about these job losses is when they read about it in the local paper this morning.'

'Thousands of staff have been taken out of our NHS in the last year, which will lead to a permanent reduction in services.'

'Patient care is now being put at risk by trusts desperate to balance the books.'

Sources

• 28 June 2006: BBC News