NHS trusts outline where 550 jobs will be cut
GoogleNHS leaders have outlined where 550 jobs are set to be cut in a "Herculean" cost-cutting exercise.
University Hospitals Tees, which covers North and South Tees NHS Foundation Trusts, is preparing to cut roles in an effort to save £90m.
The group's deputy chief executive Matt Neligan said 65% of its costs were staffing, which would need to make up a "significant chunk" of savings.
He said many of the job cuts would be made by reducing the use of bank or agency staff as this was "a more painless way of reducing the numbers".
"Our two trusts might be two of the top three most productive trusts in the North East and North Cumbria so we're already quite lean," he said.
"But we know there is opportunity for us to be more productive."
Voluntary redundancies
According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Neligan suggested efficiencies could be made by reducing the number of patients who miss appointments, reducing unnecessary follow-up appointments, using theatres more efficiently, and reducing staff sickness.
A voluntary redundancy process is under way, but chief people officer Rachael Metcalf said it would be unlikely offered to ward-based nurses, midwives, healthcare assistants and doctors in training.
Instead, she said corporate services could be "leaner" and efficiencies could be made by streamlining how the trusts worked together through the group.
Metcalf said a recruitment freeze was in place and the trusts would consider whether people needed to be replaced once they left.
"To quote our chief executive, we absolutely have got a Herculean financial plan ahead of us," she said.
"We know we have, but that's the hand we've been dealt from our government, and that's the boundaries we have to operate within."
