Hundreds of NHS support jobs axed at hospital

A hospital spokesperson said it was taking "difficult but necessary decisions" to help it manage its budget next year

A hospital trust has announced the axing of hundreds of non-clinical jobs.

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) had been asked to cut "the cost of our support functions to April 2022 levels", a spokesperson said.

About 500 posts were affected in areas such as finance, communication and administration. CUH runs Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.

The Department of Health and Social Care said its reforms were "cutting bureaucracy".

Roland Sinker told staff "this year will be a harder year financially than we have experienced for many years"

Chief executive Roland Sinker said in a statement to staff the cuts were "approximately a 15% reduction in the budget available to fund roles that are not delivering direct clinical care".

"We know this will be a worrying time for many here at CUH and across the NHS," he added.

CUH currently employs about 13,000 staff and the loss of 500 roles is the equivalent of about 4% of its workforce.

It had "delivered more than £53m of savings in the last financial year", according to the CUH spokesperson.

It comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced NHS England would be abolished in a bid to cut bureaucracy and duplication.

The spokesperson said: "Like all NHS trusts, we have been asked to reduce the cost of our support functions this year to April 2022 levels.

"We will be taking all possible steps to minimise redundancies, through natural turnover by not recruiting to posts when staff leave, holding vacancies empty and a mutually agreed resignation scheme.

"These steps will help reduce the number of redundancies required from 500 staff in support services to closer to 200."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We are investing an extra £26bn in health and care, but that investment must be met by reform to turn around the NHS from the worst crisis in its history.

"Our reforms are cutting bureaucracy to make sure that every penny is improving front-line care for patients.

"It is only by getting the NHS running more efficiently that we will deliver on our Plan for Change and cut waiting times for treatment."