Job cut fears as hospital seeks £34m in savings

A union has said Derriford Hospital is facing hundreds of job losses as managers slash the trust's wage bill by £34m in a series of financial cuts.

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, which employs 11,000 people, is cutting a total of £67m from its budget, after saving £56m last year, chief executive Mark Hackett has announced.

He said the trust had to reduce its total spend on pay by about £34m per year but would try "as far as possible" to avoid job losses through turnover, vacancies and other means.

Kevin Treweeks, from the union Unison in Plymouth, said cuts of £34m to the wage bill was the equivalent of about 600 full-time staff.

Mr Treweeks said the cuts went further than had been expected.

"I am as shocked as the staff are, no-one was expecting anything this drastic," he said.

"That's 600 people who won't be on the wards treating patients, that won't be making your appointments for you, that won't be cleaning the wards, that won't be serving the food to the people who are staying overnight."

Mr Hackett said: "We will look, as far as possible, to make the pay savings through a combination of turnover and vacancies, reducing our discretionary pay spend which includes things like overtime and bank pay and better managing sickness absence."

Hitting the £67m target, which is equivalent to about 6% of the trust's total £1bn expenditure, would also be achieved through increasing productivity, he said.

The trust had "never made a saving of this magnitude before on a recurrent, every year, basis", said Mr Hackett, blaming a rising need for healthcare and increased costs for the cuts.

The move comes as the hospital improved patient care and reduced the length of stay for emergency admissions last year, said Mr Hackett.

A new urgent treatment centre and £200m emergency care building are also planned this year, along with new electronic patient record system, he said.

Luke Pollard, MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said hospital managers "need to continue to cut costs, but I want to see more of a focus on looking after NHS staff, rather than using temporary bank staff that cost a fortune".

Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust said it was cutting £40m this year, the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust said it was cutting £49.3m and the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said it was still finalising plans but would be making "significant savings".

Joe Teape, chief executive of Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Our priority is to continue to provide safe and equitable services for our people and communities while reducing our running costs.

"We are working with our colleagues and teams to develop our plans, including our staff side representatives."

Chris Tidman, deputy chief executive at the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said there would be "tighter controls" on spending "as well as increasing the income we bring into the trust".

"We are still finalising our plans but are focussed on increasing our productivity through the continued use of new technology and developing new service models," he said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: "We are reforming the NHS to cut bureaucracy and make savings so we can focus on empowering frontline staff to deliver better care for patients, while getting value for taxpayers' money.

"We are investing an extra £26bn in health and care, and have already made progress on our mission to cut waiting lists, delivering an extra 3 million appointments in six months and cutting the waiting list by 219,000 since July."

Follow BBC Devon on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].