Reports of major NHS job losses are misleading, and few people are being made redundant, according to NHS Employers.
The pay and workforce body’s survey of NHS trust HR departments that have announced job cuts found that the number of actual redundancies will be relatively small.
Although press reports have stated the number of job losses in individual NHS trusts will range between 60 and 1,000, almost all of the organisations who were able to give details said only a handful of staff were likely to lose their jobs, according to NHS Employers.
Where NHS organisations are reducing their workforce, they are doing so by freezing vacancies, reducing temporary and agency staff, redesigning services and redeploying people in other settings.
The NHS Confederation and NHS Employers have sent a briefing to MPs on the issue ahead of a nurses’ rally at Westminster today.
“We feel it is important to set the record straight because of the likely damage to staff morale and public confidence of persistent inaccuracies and speculation,” said NHS Employers deputy director Sian Thomas.
“Locally and nationally, employers are working very closely with staff and their representative organisations, consulting on any changes and ensuring as much as possible that valuable staff skills are retained and patient care is not compromised.”
