NHS boards plan for cuts

Friday, May 28, 2010

Scotland's largest health board plans to axe 1,252 staff over the next 18 months, as NHS boards across the country make efficiency savings.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said the reduction by 2013 was part of efforts to modernise and redesign services and cuts would be achieved through a routine turnover of staff.

More than half of the posts are set to involve nurses and midwives and the health board added that there would be no compulsory redundancies.

The move has been branded "reckless" by union officials however other health boards are making similar cuts.

NHS Lothian plans to make £31m worth of savings which includes the reduction of 700 staff by the end of this financial year. The number of agency and bank staff will be reduced while committing to no compulsory redundancies.

In addition, the health board also plans to consolidate the number of administrative office buildings from 13 down to three over the next few years.

Elsewhere, NHS Tayside are considering axing around 500 posts while NHS Forth Valley, due to open its new £300m state-of-the-art hospital, is planning savings worth £26m.

NHS Forth Valley's Director of Human Resources, Helen Kelly said: "While there is no freeze on recruitment, a process is in place to carefully scrutinise and assess each vacancy on an individual basis. In addition, like all other NHS Boards, we are working to reduce our spend on agency and locum staff across the organisation."