200 hospital jobs face axe

11:00am Friday 9th March 2007

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UP to 95 beds and 200 jobs will go at York Hospital next year as its income is slashed by millions, The Press can reveal today.

The Wigginton Road organisation plans to strip away the equivalent of three general wards over the next year to cater for the fact it will treat nearly 10,000 fewer patients - a drop of seven per cent.

Hospital bosses are making the drastic cuts to cope with £4 million less cash that will come its way next year from the debt-ridden North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT). Over this year and next, the organisation expects a drop in PCT income of £10 million.

That will mean a strict limit on the number of patients allowed at the hospital for surgery, with some emergency patients even sent elsewhere if no beds are available.

Chief executive Jim Easton said patients whose lives were at risk would not be turned away from accident and emergency. But others, who could be coming in for an urgent but non life-threatening condition, may have to go either to another hospital or medical centre.

He said: "This is new for York - but it does happen in other parts of the NHS.

"Only having capacity to deal with a certain number of patients, we will find ourselves in the same position as many other hospitals. But we wouldn't put someone's life at risk through these measures."

Most of the bed losses will happen early in the new financial year, probably in May.

The 200 jobs will be shed over the course of the year through vacancy control, not through redundancy.

There will also be limits on how many patients can have surgery. That will mean any extra referrals from doctors will have to be sent to the PCT for a decision. Bosses there may allow extra patients to be operated on in York, or may decide to send them elsewhere.

Mr Easton said it was not yet known which areas of the hospital would see beds being cut.

The vacancy freeze comes on top of last year's announcement that 200 jobs would be shed this year.

It will mean staff will relocate to other parts of the hospital as posts become free through natural turnover, with measures put in place to protect frontline staff.

Mr Easton said: "The key issue is that we are comfortable when we make these changes that we can continue to provide really excellent care for the patients we are commissioned to treat.

"When I talk to staff, there's a great appreciation of the challenge facing us because of the PCT's financial problems. I think staff will be reassured that we're not moving to redundancies."

York Hospital Unison representative Edna Mulhearn said: "I would think this news is very bad for the people of York and the patients of this hospital."

Job cuts to save money?... We have been here before

LAST April, we reported how York Hospital was having to cut back on 200 posts this year, to save cash.

Bosses told The Press they were making the move to save £2.5 million from the organisation's books.

Chief executive Jim Easton said there were national requirements to make efficiency savings. Severe financial problems facing the now defunct Selby and York Primary Care Trust were also a factor.

At the time, he said: "This is difficult news for the trust, particularly when we are already an efficient hospital and have managed our finances well while improving the services we deliver."

We reported how every year about 400 jobs normally became vacant at York Hospital.