St George's Healthcare NHS Trust

150 jobs
Number of planned job losses

Announcement Date

19 May 2006

Employment effect (start)

Foreseen end date

Description

Up to 150 jobs are to be cut by an NHS trust after it was told to balance its books by the Department of Health. St George's Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs St George's Hospital in Tooting, south London, has been told to make an additional £10m of savings. The trust said services would be unaffected by the cuts, which will be mostly among administration staff. Consultants' hours will also be cut to save £1.2m, which the trust says will prevent a further 60 job losses. Mike Bailey, one of the trust's medical directors, said clinics would be unaffected as consultants were only being asked to cut their work on 'administrative tasks'. A spokeswoman for the British Medical Association said: 'It is hard to see how this will not affect patient care. We are concerned that patients will suffer.' St George's, which reported a deficit of £11.5m at the end of the last financial year, is the latest NHS trust to announce redundancies. The trust was told to balance its books "within one financial year", but there is no report of when job losses will take place. Additional measures to be introduced include reducing agency staff and the use of 'the tightest possible controls on recruitment'. St George's says management staff will also be made redundant ahead of doctors, nurses or health workers. It reduced its workforce by 300 posts last year.

Sources

• 19 May 2006: BBC Website