A nurse from Watford General Hospital has slammed plans to slash the number of staff in accident and emergency (A&E).
The nurse, who currently works in the department, claims hospital bosses have told staff that West Herts Hospitals NHS Trust will halve the number of nurses in A&E.
In a letter sent to the Watford Observer, the nurse has revealed staff in A&E are already over-worked and that when emergency services at Hemel Hempstead close, the Vicarage Road hospital will be dangerously under-staffed.
The nurse said: "I believe they are about to put patient care in A&E at a big risk.
"Anyone who has been in the department recently will know all the nursing staff are constantly running around, caring for very sick patients, giving treatments or assisting in the doctors' duties.
"To reduce the staff by this number will increase the time to be seen and to be treated and also compromise the care given to patients. Many members of staff, nurses, doctors and other healthcare workers have already said that they think patients will die because of these cut backs."
Currently every shift at Watford A&E is staffed by ten nurses during the day, and eight at night.
NHS bosses are thought to be looking to reduce this to five nurses during the day and four at night and relocate 22 nurses to other areas of the trust.
However, under a major reorganisation of health care in Hertfordshire, A&E services at Hemel Hempstead Hospital are due to be transferred to Watford, meaning tens of thousands more people will soon rely on the service.
The nurse, who has asked to remain anonymous, said staff are concerned they will not receive sufficient training if they are transferred to a new role.
A trust spokesman said a final decision on the number of nurses employed in Watford A&E has not yet been made, but did confirm that hundreds of agency staff would be lost.
The cuts are part of huge cost cutting measures, which will see the equivalent of 135 full-time nurses and midwives axed across the trust.
The move aims to save the cash trust millions of pounds.
The spokesman said nurses from A&E will not be made redundant, but will be sent to other areas of the trust.
He added that most of the terminated staff members will be agency workers.
Chief executive of the trust, David Law, said: "Our primary aim is to ensure that patient care is not compromised, while bringing the trust back into financial balance and ensuring high-quality services to people living in west Hertfordshire, in the long-term."
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