NHS hospital redundancies gather pace

A wave of redundancies across the NHS in England gathered force yesterday when a London teaching hospital announced that nearly 500 posts will be axed in an attempt to dig the trust out of deficit.

The Royal Free hospital in Hampstead, north London, said about 480 jobs would be lost under plans to achieve savings of £25m in the next year. The trust said it would do everything possible to ensure redundancies were kept to a minimum.

Its announcement was followed by further job cuts at Queen Mary's hospital in Sidcup, where 103 nursing and midwifery posts are being cut.

Last week the university hospital of North Staffordshire said it was being forced to lay off 1,000 employees, including 15 consultants and 250 nurses.

Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, yesterday received plans from strategic health authority chiefs to balance the books by the end of March next year. But already hospital trusts are starting to announce action plans to break even.

Andrew Way, chief executive of the Royal Free hospital NHS trust, said: "We must achieve financial balance if we are to control our own future as the government has made it very clear they will not bail out organisations which fail to do so."

The £25m was made up of the legal requirement to make good past overspending, achieve £9m in efficiency savings and provide £10m to cover increased salaries and costs of drugs and equipment.

Frank Dobson, the former Labour health secretary whose St Pancras North constituents use the Royal Free, said: "I wish ministers would give up the stupid pretence that getting rid of hundreds of staff will not damage patient care."