Hospital staff offered cash to quit their jobs
Last updated 12:53, Thursday, 24 July 2008
North Cumbria’s hospital staff are being offered a cash incentive to quit their jobs as bosses struggle to cope with increased budget pressures.
Letters explaining the new voluntary severance scheme have this week been sent out to all employees at both the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and Whitehaven’s West Cumberland Hospital.
It offers a financial package to those staff willing to leave their posts voluntarily.
All staff who have worked at the North Cumbria Acute Hospitals NHS Trust for more than 12 months are eligible to apply, although it is not known exactly how many employees they hope to let go.
Bosses insist that the severance scheme – which differs slightly from redundancy – is completely voluntary.
They have blamed financial pressures on the need to make huge savings – totalling £14.2 million this year alone – but stress that compulsory redundancy will only be considered as an absolute last resort.
The strict cost-improvement plan is blamed on a combination of national efficiency targets, which has seen annual income drop by three per cent; changes to the way hospital services are funded by the Government; and major changes to the way healthcare is delivered in Cumbria.
Senior managers say that, working alongside clinical teams, they have identified ways of saving £7 million. However they believe that the remaining £7.2 million can only be achieved by cutting the costs of its workforce.
Part of this will be achieved as part of the ongoing changes to the way health care is delivered across the county, shifting the focus from acute hospitals where suitable and into community settings.
As a result of the Closer to Home plan, drawn up by Cumbria Primary Care Trust, there will be the need to retrain and relocate some staff. This will potentially see some workers transferring from Acute Trust employment to the PCT. It is estimated that the workforce within the Acute Trust will drop by ten per cent – around 400 staff – over the next two years as a result.
But with such major savings needed, the trust is also looking at other options.
Following approval from the Department of Health it has now this week offered all staff the chance to apply for voluntary severance. However there is no automatic entitlement and each application will be judged against a series of criteria.
Acting chief executive Kevin Clarkson explained: “The organisation has to deliver £14.2 million of savings this year which is in line with the trust’s financial recovery plan. We have already identified £7 million of this and we are now implementing schemes to deliver the rest of the savings this year.
“We have consulted with staff-side representatives over the new voluntary severance scheme for staff and this has now received approval from the Department of Health. This is a scheme which gives staff a choice and is one that is entirely voluntary.”
Union representatives have previously expressed apprehension regarding severance offers, as they fear they may offer staff a worse deal than they would get through the official NHS redundancy scheme.
However, Christine Wharrier, Unison convener with the Acute Trust, said it may suit some individual cases.
The letter, which has now been sent out to all trust employees, states that despite identifying major savings, the outstanding £7.2 million can only achieved by considering a range of “workforce options”.
It goes: “The trust aims to ensure, as far as possible, security of employment for its employees.
“However, it is recognised that changes in the trust’s role, levels of funding and/or the need for change because of organisational, professional or technological development, may lead to a requirement for staffing changes, including redeployment or a reduction in staffing levels. Where such changes are required, the trust will aim to handle them in a fair, sympathetic and non-discriminatory manner.”
The letter adds: “Compulsory redundancy will be seen as a last resort and considered only after all reasonable alternatives have been fully explored and exhausted.”
Opinion: page 12
PMcGowan@cngroup.co.uk
if the labour government realised hospitals need to be ran as such and not businesses then this fiasco could have been avoided!
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have the managers over the years have been newly created posts?the trusts have known what lay ahead eg; 2008/2009..business plan,Many employers pay is protected for 5 years or more, therefore savings to be made will take at least 5 years, unless redundancies are to be made. was this tactics to replace qualified staff with less expensive health care workers.
Posted by sally on 30 July 2008 kl. 00:24