03 November 2006
Government figures on compulsory redundancies in the NHS do not tell the full story, health unions have warned.
More than 900 NHS staff were made compulsorily redundant between April 2006 and the end of September, official figures from the Department of Health reveal. However, a DoH spokeswoman told Public Finance those figures were unlikely to include those resulting from primary care and ambulance trust mergers on October 1.
A DoH statement added that less than one quarter of the redundancies concerned 'clinical staff' and that 'the vast majority [were] managers and administrative staff'.
But Jon Restell, chief executive of the NHS managers' trade union Managers in Partnership, said: 'We are concerned by the prevailing view that… there are some staff whose redundancy is politically unacceptable and… other staff whose redundancy is okay, even desirable.'
Howard Katton, head of policy at the Royal College of Nursing, told PF that the college remained concerned about 20,000 axed posts, which lowered staff-to-patient ratios and jeopardised patient care.
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