Manchester: Hospital beds axe fear

Staff at North Manchester General Hospital are 'demoralised', according to their hospital union, as trust bosses look to cut dozens of beds to trim a £12M debt - reports the Manchester Evening News.

Negotiations between Pennine Acute Trust managers and hospital staff continue over 60 bed cuts at the Crumpsall hospital over the next year, just as a Healthcare Commission report finds that a third of patients across Pennine Acute Trust's (PAT) four hospitals already have to share wards or bays with people of the opposite sex.

Some 29 beds on North Manchester General's short-stay surgical unit could be first in line to be axed, along with 14 beds at Royal Oldham.

Unison's Pete Hinchliffe said: "We are opposed to all the bed closures because we cannot see that it is anything but detrimental to the services - it is driven purely by finance.

"We are in discussions with managers about plans for surgical bed cuts in Oldham and are now speaking to staff at North Manchester.

"Staff need to know where these job cuts will be as soon as possible. It is unsettling and demoralising for them to have the cuts hanging over them like this."

Trust bosses have confirmed that managers are considering where to make the cuts which they claim form part of a package of 'improvements', but say no final decision has yet been made. Staff affected by the changes would be offered other jobs with the trust.

Roger Pickering, a PAT director, said: "Decisions have not been made to close specific wards. As we announced previously, our recovery programme involves reducing a number of beds from each site.

"We've asked staff in our operational divisions to work up proposals for each site, so there will certainly be ideas in the system, and discussions across all of our sites. However, this is different to formal proposals agreed by the trust.

"We are not at that stage - once we are then staff will be informed. We have been very open about reducing bed numbers, and the need to engage staff in developing the proposals so that we get this right."