Gloucestershire hospitals trust chief defends job cuts

The trust runs hospitals in Gloucester and Cheltenham

The chief executive of Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust has defended plans to cut "several hundred" jobs.

Dr Frank Harsent said he had been "very clear" in conversations with staff during meetings on Tuesday he wanted to protect frontline services.

He said any argument that you could not save money implied the NHS was "perfectly efficient" and most people believed that this was not the case.

The trust runs hospitals in Cheltenham and Gloucester.

'Lack of information'

It needs to save £18m from its budget of £420m - of which 70% are staff costs - by next year.

The trust said it hopes to achieve the 4% efficiency savings through natural turnover and some redeployment.

Helen Hancox, from the Royal College of Nursing in Gloucestershire, said she was concerned about the "lack of clarity" over numbers.

Ms Hancox said the majority of people who work in hospitals were providing frontline care in one form or another.

"They might not be the nurse on the ward but if they are working in a lab supporting those staff - to take them out will affect frontline care."

Dr Harsent said he was working with staff and unions to find a way forward.

'Grand plan'

"I was in here a year ago when we were talking about bed reductions.

"One of the criticisms from the trade unions was that they didn't want us to produce a grand plan... what they said was 'tell us the issues and get us involved' and that's what we've chosen to do.

"I'm not going to give you a precise number [of job losses] because that will be wrong.

"Let's get people involved and work through the issues and look at all the actions that can be taken.

"Until we've done that work I can't give you a number."