News Archive
15th of March 2004
170 Jobs Could Go in Cash Crisis
170 jobs are at risk as Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust struggles to balance its books. The announcement was made at the March Meeting of the Trust Board although news was leaked to UNISON a few days before the official announcement. Chris Appleby, Trust CEO was unable to say how many actual redundancies there would be or where these would fall but he blamed a £10M revenue deficit and new NHS rules on the relationship between capital and income for creating the problem.
Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has broken pre-merger promises made to its staff and has warned that up to 170 local health jobs could be at risk. UNISON Pennine Acute Health Branch believes that the Trust is juggling with people's livelihoods in a cynical move to balance its books.
Branch Secretary Pete Hinchliffe said, "The first thing that the trade unions asked for when four local health trusts merged under two years ago was an unequivocal assurance that there would be no compulsory redundancies. We were somewhat surprised when the employer refused to grant what was then seen as a very reasonable request. In fact, the consultation documents that were circulated before the merger seemed to reassure staff and said that only a very small number of management posts could be lost. It now looks as if the people of Bury, North Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale have been conned."
"We are particularly saddened to note that Roy Tyndall, the Human Resources Director has blamed the high cost of employee pensions as being partly to blame for putting the Trust in the red. We are far more in touch with our patients than he is and know that they want to be looked after by decently paid staff who are not scared of reaching retirement age. The trouble with the NHS is that there are far too many managers who have no clinical backgrounds making decisions that can affect the healthcare of hundreds of thousands of people in the area. We urge our local MPS to do all they can to ensure that these jobs are not put at risk and that our hospitals get the cash they need to provide front line health services for a population that reports have shown to have some of the worst health problems in the UK. Putting 170 people on the dole will do nothing to improve the health of anyone. The merger of four local health trusts was allowed to go ahead only because they promised to improve local healthcare. If the Board no longer feel able to do this, they need to consider their futures. We know that our members will feel bitterly let down and it will be the last straw for some of them who know that they could get better, more secure jobs elsewhere."