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NHS Redundancies

February 11, 2012 by · Comments Off on NHS Redundancies 

NHS Redundancies, More than £600 million could be spent on NHS redundancies in one year as a result of the Government’s controversial reforms, figures show.

Estimates from the Department of Health show £616.6 million accounted for in possible redundancy costs for 2011/12.

The health service has already made £195 million of redundancy payments in 2010/11, all of which have been attributed to “the modernisation” of the NHS, documents show.

Total redundancy costs as a result of the Health and Social Care Bill, including cash already spent in 2010/11, are expected to be between £632 million and £989 million, with a Government “best estimate” of £810 million.

Predicted job losses in the NHS – from April 2011 onwards – as a direct result of the reforms, which are still going through Parliament, is 9,100 to 16,800.

Howard Catton, head of policy at the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said the redundancy costs were “huge”.

He said: “This is at a time when we are having to make cuts to services which are impacting on the frontline.

“This is a huge amount of money that could be better spent, not to mention the loss of expertise and organisational memory that will result from this.”

Mr Catton said hospitals could use the money to protect vital services for patients.

“Given how challenging the times ahead are for the NHS, we can ill afford to make cuts to frontline staff or lose the expertise NHS managers have in terms of tackling those challenges,” he added.

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