NHS Tayside could lose 10% of staff

NHS Tayside may have to cut a tenth of its workforce to balance the books.

According to a report which came to light last week, it was revealed the health board may have to slash 10 per cent of its staff to make savings.

Should this be carried forward, 1300 staff would go, although NHS Tayside has insisted there will be no compulsory redundancies and reductions would come from“natural staff turnover”over several years.

Annie Ingram, NHS Tayside’s director of workforce, said:“Over the past two years, NHS Tayside has carried out a number of workforce benchmarking exercises which showed NHS Tayside’s spending on workforce is higher than similarly sized health boards.

“We spend around £450 million on staff every year and we have a responsibility to ensure that our public funding is spent in the best possible way.

“It is important that we identify where efficiencies can be made whilst ensuring that services are being delivered with the best use of the resources we are allocated.

“Patient safety and clinical care remain a top priority for NHS Tayside but we must also achieve financial balance.

“That is why we are carrying out an organisation-wide review of staff numbers, grades and skills, which is being carried out in partnership with our staff and our trade unions, to ensure we have a safe, affordable and sustainable workforce.

“Our transformation programme will present opportunities to redesign services delivering them in a different way with a different workforce.

“There is no compulsory redundancy policy in NHS Scotland therefore no one will lose their job.

“Any reduction will be due to natural staff turnover.”

This comes as NHS Tayside, which employs around 13,500 people, had £150 million of debt written off by the Scottish Government.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said:“Patient safety and quality of care are top priorities for the Scottish Government.

“That is why the Scottish Government will not seek to recover historic brokerage provided to NHS Tayside, and the board will be provided with a financial clean slate in 2019/20 to enable them to implement measures set out in the health and social care delivery plan.””