London: NHS trust to axe up to 150 posts

Up to 150 jobs are to be cut by an NHS trust after it was told to balance its books by the Department of Health - according to the BBC.

St George's Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs St George's Hospital in Tooting, south London, has been told to make an additional £10m of savings. The trust said services would be "unaffected" by the cuts, which will be mostly among administration staff.

Consultants' hours will also be cut to save £1.2m, which the trust says will prevent a further 60 job losses. The consultants are each being asked to reduce their work by two hours a week.

Mike Bailey, one of the trust's medical directors, said clinics would be unaffected as consultants were only being asked to cut their work on "administrative tasks".

A spokeswoman for the British Medical Association said: "It is hard to see how this will not affect patient care. We are concerned that patients will suffer."

St George's, which reported a deficit of £11.5m at the end of the last financial year, is the latest NHS trust to announce redundancies.