Published: Monday, 8th February, 2010 12:00pm

Casualties of cost-cutting at hospital

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DOZENS of volunteers have been booted out of Heatherwood Hospital and now a worker's union fears hundreds of paid staff will be axed too.

The GMB union says that it has been given three months' notice that 250 full-time posts of 609 at risk will potentially become redundant from Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals - although only a fortnight ago patients were asked not to come to A&E because of a shortage of beds.

In two weeks a much-loved tea bar and sweet shop run by 70 members of the Women's Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) at the Ascot hospital will close to make way for department moves. GMB organiser Frank Minal said about the job fears: "The GMB will ensure that its members interests are protected and will seek to minimise the impact on workers."

The union will also be writing to MPs asking them to launch an Early Day Motion to ask parliament to call for an investigation into the management of Heatherwood and Wexham Park NHS Foundation Trust's finances over the last two years.

The trust has already reduced its deficit from £20m to £9.9m but still needs to make more cuts.

Mr Minal added: "It is difficult to apportion blame for this financial calamity, but the GMB must work with the NHS Foundation trust to find solutions to save jobs. Keith Roberts from the local GMB negotiating team has committed himself to saving livelihoods in this difficult climate."

The Trust held an open board meeting on Tuesday last week, at which new Trust chairman Christopher Langley and new CEO Julie Burgess announced that health watchdog Monitor had approved the board of directors' Trust Turnaround plan to continue to reduce the Trust's financial deficit.

A spokesman for the Trust denied 250 jobs, 6.8% of permanent staff, would be axed, but said: "We do recognise that as a result of implementation of the Turnaround Plan, there is a potential loss of jobs across the organisation. However, the posts that could be affected will not be clear until we start working through the Turnaround Plan.

"Additionally it is our clear intention to ensure that posts are reduced, wherever possible, by not filling current vacancies and staff affected by the changes will, wherever possible, have the opportunity to move within the organisation. Redundancies would be the last possible option for the Trust, and we began freezing vacancies since July last year to help with the redeployment of staff."