9:16am Thursday 3rd April 2008
By Jane Lavender
About 90 jobs could be axed at the Royal Bolton Hospital as part of £6.6million in cuts.
Nursing, administration and technical staff posts will all be axed, while £600,000 will be saved by treating some patients within a day rather than keeping them in overnight.
Hospital bosses revealed the savings as they confirmed that £11 million would be pumped into the site for work on the maternity super-centre, general improvements and the introduction of complex heart surgery.
That cash has come from the hospital's separate capital budget, which funds one-off major investments.
Managers say at least 64 posts will be cut, although they insist many vacant positions will simply not be filled. Staff representatives say they fear the cost-cutting is a sign of the creeping privatisation of the service.
Hospital chief executive David Fillingham said: "We are committed to avoiding redundancies.
"Forty-seven of the 64 posts are already vacant and about 400 people a year leave the hospital."
He added that the job cuts could eventually total "90 plus".
The need for savings has been driven by funding cuts, Government demands that the NHS should be more efficient and a loan repayment.
Posts to go include 32 in administration, around 24 from nursing and midwifery, and around six from the scientific, therapeutic and technical departments.
Harry Hanley, secretary of Staff Side, which represents workers at the hospital, added: "People want to know why they're being told on a drip-feed basis about cuts.
"It's staggering to see what cuts have been made over the last three years. Is this a conscious decision to cut services from the NHS, or is it a conscious decision to provide the same service in the private sector?"
Cllr Andy Morgan, chairman of Bolton Council's health scrutiny committee, said: "This is the fifth year in a row staff have been asked to find these scale of cuts.
"Patients already contact me to tell me they or a family member were discharged too early. This will only increase."
Among the planned capital investments are £2.5 million to build the maternity super-centre, £1.8 million to move the health records department from a disused ward to free up space for clinical use and almost £1.2 million on the introduction of new complex heart surgery.
General maintenance and fire precautions will cost £1.5 million, £720,000 on improving X-rays in orthopaedics and £603,000 in clinical equipment.
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