Jobs under threat as Trust looks to cut costs
REDUNDANCIES AND FROZEN RECRUITMENT AT HOSPITALS
ONE of the region’s largest hospital trusts, employing more than 20,000 people, has launched a major redundancy scheme and frozen recruitment in a bid to cut costs.
The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA) runs some of Greater Manchester’s biggest hospitals including Salford Royal, the Royal Oldham, Fairfield General, and Rochdale Infirmary.
The Health Service Journal (HSJ) has reported that the trust is rolling out a sweeping redundancy scheme, along with a recruitment freeze on non-clinical staff.
The cutbacks follow trusts across the country being mired in financial difficulty, including the NCA which is running a deficit in the tens of millions and is on a cost-improvement plan to make savings of an eye-watering £87.8m.
In November, the Manchester Evening News reported how the NCA began a ‘voluntary resignation scheme’ - but bosses denied this was a redundancy scheme. At the time, the trust did not confirm to the Manchester Evening News whether a voluntary or compulsory redundancy scheme would follow in the efforts to make savings.
Now, the trust’s internal papers, seen by the HSJ, are reported to make way for cuts of more than 14 per cent of its corporate workforce and suggest more than 100 posts could be removed.
This includes quality improvement, safe staffing, patient experience and complaints and infection prevention and control, though the NCA says the measures will not impact clinical staff who work directly with patients.
The HSJ said internal documents noted corporate services in the trust had grown by 20 per cent since 2019.
The NCA is expected to report a deficit of £71m for 2023-24 - an estimated £40m worse than forecast.
The trust has told the M.E.N. it is ‘looking at ways to reduce our spend and improve our finances.’
Nicky Clarke, chief of people, said: “We are one of a number of NHS trusts that are looking at ways to reduce our spend and improve our finances.
“We have started a formal consultation with colleagues affected by proposals within the corporate services of our trust.
“The proposed changes do not include clinical roles who work directly with patients and service users.”