NHS staff protest against 'huge' jobs cuts in Cambridge amid warnings patient care could be damaged
Staff are protesting against hundreds of job cuts at a major hospital trust, amid warnings that patient care could be "damaged."
Members of the Unite union at the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) demonstrated outside Addenbrooke's Hospital on Wednesday.
The trust has announced that over 500 jobs are at risk - approximately 4% of the total workforce - in a move described as a "difficult but necessary" decision.
The cuts come after a mandate from NHS England earlier this year, which said that spending on support functions in NHS trusts must return to April 2022 levels.
Five hundred roles at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH), which is Norfolk's largest hospital, have also been put at risk, although the exact number has yet to be decided.
Unite's lead representative at Addenbrooke's Craig Jamieson, said: "My role in clinical engineering is at risk and it is very worrying.
"Everybody you speak to at the hospital is very concerned and anxious about what will happen."Already, many of my colleagues work unpaid overtime, and stress and mental health problems are major reasons why staff go off sick. If these cuts are pushed through, I only see that getting worse."
Roles up for redundancy include those working in "support functions" such as porters, maintenance staff, plumbers, engineers and those in administrative and clerical roles.But according to Unite, staff are concerned that losing these support roles will leave workers having to take on more as well as impacting patient care.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "These huge cuts across NHS trusts in Cambridgeshire are a blunt tool that risks damaging patient care, quality and waiting times."Unite stands firmly against these cuts."
A CUH spokesperson said: 'Like all NHS Trusts, we have been asked to reduce the cost of our support functions this year to April 2022 levels."For CUH, which has a total workforce of 13,000 staff, this means a reduction of around 500 posts not delivering direct clinical care."The statement continued: 'We are 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.'We appreciate it is a worrying and uncertain time for many colleagues working in the NHS, and we have put in place a range of measures to support staff during this process.'Over the past three years we have invested in additional staff, and our focus on productivity and efficiency means we delivered more than £53m of savings in the last financial year.'Taking these difficult but necessary decisions will help us manage our budget in the coming year and in the long term, while continuing to meet the needs of our patients now and in the future.
"Throughout this process, we will ensure that patient safety remains our absolute priority.'
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