Union warns planned health cuts in North could put 3,000 jobs at risk

SWEEPING COST-CUTTING proposals could put up to 3,000 health service jobs under threat in the North, trade unions have warned.

Nipsa, the public service union, claims a leaked report about proposed cutbacks in the Belfast Trust area suggest a redundancy programme is being considered.

Brian Campfield, deputy general secretary of Nipsa, said the North’s five new health trusts – which replaced the previous 18 – were currently under pressure to reduce their budgets.

“The trusts are looking at ways to cut costs because of a number of factors – first, there is the fact that they all have been told by the Assembly to make efficiency savings of 3 per cent and then many are also carrying over deficits from previous healthcare trusts.”

Mr Campfield said he believed the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, which employs more than 22,000 people, was considering cutbacks which could affect between 2,700 and 3,000 workers.

“We are very worried about these proposals. We have been advised that the trust believes some of these cuts could be achieved through early retirement and voluntary redundancy packages but we do not support this.

“It may be that these proposed cuts would not require compulsory redundancies but the fact remains that if you were to take up to 3,000 workers out of the trust it would have a huge impact on the quality of service delivered. This is a very people-intensive service – the quality of service could not be maintained or improved on with these proposed cutbacks,” Mr Campfield said.

In a statement the Belfast Trust said media coverage of how the North’s health trusts had set about achieving the 3 per cent efficiency savings often “over-simplified” the issues by presenting them as cuts, closures or job losses.

The trust stated: “That is not the case and it does not help an understanding of what is being done or build the confidence of patients, clients, carers and staff.

“We are not planning to close or cut services, but we are looking at ways of doing things better.

“As part of that process we are discussing a range of options and are taking a number of suggestions from front-line staff. Good financial management is, of course, very important but we are in the business of delivering health and social care.

“If we did not look at our services to see if we could make them better, more relevant and more effective, we would not be doing our job,” the trust said.

Mr Campfield said it was likely the North’s other health trusts could also be considering redundancy programmes. “We have no idea what contingency plans these trusts are putting in place – they all have to make efficiency savings but I do believe it is inescapable that if job cuts are made then patients will suffer.”