3,300 NHS job losses in the South West uncovered by new cuts campaign website

By PRSD, on Wednesday, February 23, 2011

False Economy: the new website has formally launched which picks the holes in the ideologically inspired cuts the nation is enduring under the Coalition

False Economy – the cuts campaign website that formally launches today (Wednesday, February 23) – reveals that more than 3,300 NHS staff posts in the South West are set for the axe, destroying government claims that the NHS is in safe hands

Health secretary Andrew Lansley said in April 2010 of possible NHS job cuts under Labour: “They will cut the number of nurses, the number of doctors and the number of hospital beds. It does not get more frontline than that.”

David Cameron then famously claimed before the election that he would ‘cut the deficit, not the NHS’.

However, less than 10 months into the coalition government, the reality couldn’t be more different, with NHS cuts across the South West including:

Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust which has formally notified 137 staff they are at risk of redundancy.
South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust will axe 30 clinical and 51 non-clinical posts this year through normal staff turnover.
Royal Cornwall Hospital NHS Trust which plans to lose up to 200 posts through natural wastage in 2011 having already shed 450 people in 2010.
Taunton & Somerset NHS Foundation Trust which plans to lose 305 clinical posts and 199 non-clinical posts.
Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust which will lose 360 posts by 2013 including consultants, nurses and midwives.
Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which is cutting 230 posts by 2012 in clinical and non-clinical areas.
Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Trust with 87 posts set to go including some in dental, nursing, midwifery, health visitors and clinical support.
Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust, which plans to shed 1,115 full-time posts from 2011-14, mainly through natural turnover.
Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust needs to cut its wage bill by 5 per cent which would mean losing 150 posts.

The total job losses in the South West which have already taken place this financial year or are confirmed or planned is 3,314.

However that total could rise. Out of the 18 NHS trusts which responded to information requests, or where information was already available, seven could not say at this stage if there would be job losses. Only two, Yeovil District Hospital and the specialist Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath, said no job losses were planned.

Nationally, the total confirmed, planned and potential NHS staff cuts currently stands at just over 53,150 posts – and that’s before a host of trusts are expected to announce staff cuts over the next four months, including all Wales’ health boards, says the TUC.

The national total is already twice the previous estimate of 27,000 job cuts, published by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) last November.

False Economy’s figures have been collated for the most part from NHS trusts themselves under the Freedom of Information Act but also include figures sourced by the RCN Frontline First campaign, as well as press reports and foundation trusts’ annual plans published by the national regulator Monitor.

While most of the cuts are likely to be achieved through natural wastage rather than compulsory redundancies, it is hard to see how this level of staff cuts can be achieved without directly impacting on patient care, says the TUC.

False Economy is a new website that brings together the new generation of social media campaigners with the traditional campaigners in unions. It has already established itself, even before today’s formal launch, as the hub of Britain’s growing anti-cuts movement. It allows people to upload details of local cuts, provide testimony on how the cuts will affect them and promote local groups and activities.

The site’s director is Clifford Singer, who ran the MyDavidCameron spoof poster site during the election campaign, and its management committee brings together a wide cross-section of online campaigners with the TUC and other union representatives.

False Economy Campaign director Clifford Singer told the PRSD: “We now list more than 100 local cuts campaigns in our directory, and it’s fascinating how many are using social networks like Facebook to communicate. Some even formed through Facebook. But the point is they aren’t just talking to each other on the web, but using it to organise campaigns on their local high streets.

“UK Uncut is a brilliant example. It started as a few friends sending messages on Twitter, but grew into a high-profile, nationwide campaign against tax avoidance and greedy banks. It turned upside down the notion that internet campaigning is just about ‘clicktivism’ – low-effort activities like online petitions – and could be used as a powerful organising tool.”

South West TUC Regional Secretary Nigel Costley said: “The campaign against the government’s deep, rapid cuts is really taking off all round the South West.

“False Economy combines the strengths of union traditions with the creativity of the new generation of campaigners more used to Twitter than branch meetings.

“It’s rapidly become a home both for those taking their first steps in protesting about their local library closing and also for long-established opponents of the cuts.

“False Economy’s new research on NHS job cuts gives the lie to government claims that the NHS was safe in their hands. Not only are they reorganising the NHS in a way that strips out many of its founding principles, but also insisting on immediate cuts that will certainly harm frontline services. To echo Andrew Lansley, it does not get much more frontline than that.”

UNISON South West Regional Secretary Joanne Kaye said: “The Tories are not the party of the NHS – they are the party that will destroy our NHS. Losing 50,000 health workers will hurt. It’s only a matter of time before the toll of bed shortages and ward closures mount up. With fewer nurses on wards, the return of long waiting lists, and a rise in cancelled operations, patient care will be an early casualty.

“The Tories cannot ignore the mounting evidence that they have got it wrong on the health service, and wrong on recovery. They need to put the brakes on the cuts, and shelve the titanic re-organisation of the health service before it’s too late.

“Instead of sacrificing patients, the Tories should make the UK’s major banks pay their fair share in tax, and tackle the galling spectre of big City bonuses.”

(from a press release)