NHS trust axes 600 jobs, IT staff up for chop
'I’m sorry this extension is unavailable. Goodbye'
Posted in Management, 6th August 2010 11:36 GMT
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A hospital trust is to slash up to 600 jobs – some of which will be IT and back office staff – as part of a £60m cost saving plan.
The Royal Berkshire Hospital Trust, which employs 4,500 people, was unable to provide a breakdown of job cuts in individual departments.
It said the axe will fall in human resources, IT, facilities and other roles away from the front line of its hospital operations.
The trust has an eye clinic in Windsor and a hospital in Reading and also farms out some of its services to a hospital in Newbury.
"Everyone is now well aware that we are working to achieve our aim in a challenging financial situation which is facing the whole country and in particular the public sector," said the trust’s chief medical officer, Dr Jonathan Fielden.
"This year we have to identify and deliver a savings plan of £20 million (around 6.5 per cent of our total budget), and over three years need to save a total of £60 million.”
It plans to lay off around 200 staff by the end of 2010, and expects a total of 500 to 600 jobs to be shed at the trust over the next three years.
The Register asked the trust if it could confirm how many of its IT staff would lose their jobs in the cull. However, it was unable to provide us with a detailed breakdown of individual departments affected by the cuts. ®
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COMMENTS
Gotcha
Maybe the trick is to then ask the question he just answered:
Int: "What's the impact on jobs going to be?"
PR: "We are committed to providing excellent care for our patients"
Int: "What level of care are you committed to providing patients?"
PR: "We will be laying off 600 staff, mainly from IT and backend systems."
PR: "Damn."
SIMPLY NOT TRUE
I've never heard so much rubbish in my life.
The cost of operations is NOT going to come out of GP drawings (it's not a salary - GPs are self employed contractors) even after the changes. And operations are NOT being rushed through - there is no mechanism for GPs to do this. Do you think GPs have suddenly written to all those people on their lists with varicose veins and non-malignant moles etc asking them to come in so they can be "rushed through". And GPs don't decide the waiting lists - they simply refer to the appropriate hospital or community service. These then set their own priority.
6 fold increase in ops in 1 month already? Hmm, strange that, because operations are usually decided well over 1 month in advance. Add in the amount of time it takes for a patient to present to a doctor, and the time for them to be referred, seen in clinic and listed, and it is impossible for there to be an increase in operations already. They wouldn't even have been seen in clinic yet in most areas, let alone the PCT receive a bill!
Either you're deliberately lying to make a political point against GPs, or you're an absolute idiot who works for a PCT. Either way, it's no shame that people like you are about to be fired. You represent the lower end of quality for a PCT employee, and you're not worth my taxes. Good riddance.
If in doubt axe IT
"Let's axe IT and outsource it" mentality is still alive and kicking then.
Haven't they realised that you end up paying more in the long term.
You have to cut the admin...
If you just cut administrators without cutting the admin work they do/did then what happens is clinical staff end up becoming administrators...
Serious, strategic overhaul is whats required not window-dressing cuts to "backoffice" without thinking through the over all effect on operations...
Should have seen it on the news
This was on the local news last night - they were interviewing some manager or PR guy (dunno who) from the trust and the interviewer asked several times about the impact of the cuts on jobs.
The only answer the bod would give was "We are committed to providing excellent care for out patients" (I paraphrase). Do you detect the fault in the answer? Yes, that's right - it's an answer to a **completely** different question! Even though he was asked the same question several times, he seemed to either be (a) unable to understand English, (b) was stupid or (c) ...errr ...I'm running out of ideas.
Don't you just LOVE the way that people who are employed in a public capacity to provide services for the public, and paid for by the public at large seem to consider themselves completely unaccountable to that very same public when it suits them?
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