NHS job cuts - more than 1 in 10 posts to be axed

[Earthstar]

The hospital I work at has announced plans to cut back on staffing by 15% this year - has anyone else been told this by their NHS employer?

My employer claims that there will be no redundancies although I can't see how that level of cuts could be achieved without redundancies tbh.

well i've been told ours can't really afford redundancies!

Same here - but how else can they cut headcount by as much as 15%?

its done through recruitment freezes and not replacing staff that leave

its always a disaster - ends up costing money as they stop taking on even bank so end up paying out for last min agency

plus never lasts because if you work on a ward where people who leave are not being replaced you are going to end up either going off sick or quitting from the strain of working on an understaffed ward, They will eventually lift the freeze, but only after things have gone to the dogs (including patients suffering and even dying because of it) with sometimes entirely agency on a ward - blind leading the blind!

sad but true!

'Natural wastage'

Problem is that normal turnover is only 10% per annum...and not so many folk will be leaving since presumably nobody else is recruiting either...

I think we are going to maintain numbers of junior nurses and health care assistants - the cuts will be in more senior nursing and other areas

recruitment freezes tend to push up early retirement uptakes, long term sick leave and people handing in their notice and 'making do' till they find something else, because it creates a very stressful work place

I handed in my notice with no job to go to in such circumstances. Most of my colleagues did too. Staff turnover goes up in a hiring freeze

oh that's interesting salbysea, I just assumed that of course it would go down but I see what you are saying

people looked places the wouldn't normally have considered

a large bunch went into private health care
some (very unlikely!) people went into the prison service
some relocated

me? I applied in desperation to somewhere that wanted experience in the field, which I didn't have, but I got it. I wouldn't have applied for it if I wasn't desperate after handing my notice in

I just couldn't stay there. It used to be good but turned into everything they showed on that dispatches program. It aged me!

similar thing happening now where a friend of mine works

first few months the permanent people felt lucky to have their jobs and wouldnt consider giving them up, but now a few have retired / gone on maternity / etc, the remaining ones left holding the fort are beginning to think that ANYTHING would be better. One went to work shift work in Tescos instead

salbysea - something similar happened at the hospital I worked at (medical secretary). If a consultant's secretary left, she wasn't replaced, so other secretaries had to take up the slack. Along with the annual "you can't buy any stationery until the beginning of the new financial year", that situation led to a decrease in morale, and sickness because of stress.

So, other secretaries left - one in particular, who had been there for years, got a job with a commercial company with much less stress at the same salary! It was very enlightening to see how she brightened up as she worked through her notice.

Some secretaries just hung on in there as they were coming up to retirement and wanted their full pension. But it became very hard for them to because they wanted to continue looking after their consultant and the patients, whilst feeling pretty much insulted by manglement management treating them as a cost burden rather than an asset.

I eventually resigned because of too many examples of how exactly not to run a hospital. Though, fortunately for me, it wasn't necessary to seek another job (mortgage paid off by then). I do feel sorry for those still holding the fort.

its terrible isn't it!

it costs patients lives

its such a horrible feeling to know that you cannot spread yourself thinly enough to even give most of the people in your care decent care. Going in for a shift and seeing just one agency HCA and no other permanent staff is sickening, and its not as if we kept quiet - its just that no one cared!

I handed in my notice when a colleague had a very serious neglect case taken against them (the patient had died). I knew that this colleague was a decent, caring, hard working woman who just couldn't be everywhere at once, and was probably the only trained on the whole ward that day (as that had become common). I thought, my god! if I stay here its more likely to be when, not if, that happens to me! That's why I handed in my notice with no job to go to

its so sad as it was a fab place to work when I started!

It is awful, I have just returned to nursing after a long time away.
I gave up the first time becasue of extreme staff shortages , hasn't chamged.

They should get rid of all the useless managerial posts that exist like Equality and Diversity Manager

like salbysea said, they will start by freezing vacant posts (lots in my previous field)

It does sometimes lead to increase in agency staff, but this comes out of a different pot, so gets swept under the carpet.

the other thing is that by the time you've had your pension, 30+ days paid holiday, paid sick leave, employers NI, agency staff can work out cheaper despite the perceived high hourly rate.

i keep hearing on the general NHS grapevine that there will be cutbacks but I keep getting phonecalls offering me extra hours so I havent noticed any cutbacks myself