Hospitals look to cut up to 800 jobs to save money

Hundreds of jobs could be cut at Northampton and Kettering General Hospitals

Hundreds of jobs could be cut this year following a voluntary resignation scheme at two hospitals.

The University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) said it was looking to cut about 800 jobs across its workforce following a Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme (MARS), which enables employees to agree to leave the organisation in return for a severance payment.

UHN encompasses Northampton and Kettering General Hospitals.

Paula Kirkpatrick, UHN's chief people officer, said the programme had been "successful in helping us to reduce our overall workforce costs in a controlled and compassionate way across both of our hospitals".

Papers which went to a UHN board of directors meeting on Friday confirmed that the MARS programme had ended.

It was agreed that 80 members of staff would leave the organisation between July and September.

Ms Kirkpatrick added: "Our aim for this year is to reduce our salary costs by reducing our total workforce by the equivalent of 781 posts and so we will be continuing to look at how best to do that."

The current combined workforce amounts to about 11,000 staff across Kettering and Northampton hospitals

UHN said it had reduced its workforce by the equivalent of 329 posts in total since the end of 2024/25.

Laura Churchward, chief executive of the university hospitals, said: "Our current focus is on reducing reliance on high-cost agency and bank staffing, while continuing to protect substantive roles where possible by carefully controlling recruitment.

"We do need to reduce our overall headcount to an affordable level, as our workforce has grown substantially over the last five years."

'Cutting jobs is not the answer'

Gareth Eales, head of health for UNISON East Midlands, said: "Losing hundreds of NHS jobs is a massive blow and will send shockwaves through hospitals already under huge strain."

"We understand the financial pressures facing Trusts, but cutting jobs is not the answer," he added.

According to the UHN Board papers, salaries, and wages of staff, including agency work, make up around 60% of the hospitals' annual payments in 2025/26.

The UNH was ahead of its workforce reduction plan after a proportion of bank and agency staff was reduced in the first quarter of 2025/26.