The Daily Telegraph reports today that a health trust is asking doctors and nurses to work without pay because it is millions of pounds in debt.
Managers at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust have written to workers at its three hospitals to see if they will put in a day's work as "a voluntary contribution".
The trust, which has cut services because of a £16 million deficit last year (NB. not even a day's worth of cash that's flowing to the EU) is also encouraging staff to postpone taking a week's holiday to "help avoid additional costs".
Saturday, 27 January 2007
Wednesday, 24 January 2007
Bolton: Hospital cuts and services protest demo
Angry demonstrators walked from the town centre to the Royal Bolton Hospital to protest at the latest proposed cuts in jobs and services, reports the Bolton News.
The procession was organised by Unison, the staff union at the hospital.
Last week regional health bosses, NHS North-West, announced plans to move initial tests in ear, nose and throat, urology, gynaecology, general surgery and orthopaedics into independently-run Clinical Assessment Treatment Centres.
Hospital chiefs predict this will result in £3.7 million being cut from the Royal Bolton’s yearly budget and the loss of up to 130 jobs.
The procession was organised by Unison, the staff union at the hospital.
Last week regional health bosses, NHS North-West, announced plans to move initial tests in ear, nose and throat, urology, gynaecology, general surgery and orthopaedics into independently-run Clinical Assessment Treatment Centres.
Hospital chiefs predict this will result in £3.7 million being cut from the Royal Bolton’s yearly budget and the loss of up to 130 jobs.
Brighton: £9m spending cuts planned
Town hall bosses are looking at £9 million of cuts to services next year to keep council tax below the Government cap of 5% - reports The Argus.
Although the budget has yet to be released, The Argus understands there is a funding gap between what Brighton and Hove City Council needs to spend to maintain services and its Government grant.
It is about 5% of the total budget of £200 million.
In November, it emerged the council would have to find £20 million in savings in the next three years to keep council tax below 4.9%.
This is on top of £3 million of cuts to street cleaning and social services to balance the overspend so far this financial year.
It now appears the council needs to find £9 million in cuts to balance the books next year.
More than 111 posts are expected to be axed, including 24 positions in social services and others from management and administrative roles.
A maximum of 46 redundancies were planned but Unison said the number was falling due to a number of departures and people being moved to different departments.
Adult social services will see savings of £1.7 million, including cuts to agency staff. Schemes such as the Palmeira Project, which looked after disabled children, will now be moved to an alternative service at The Drove in Portslade.
Green councillor Simon Williams said: "We are now seeing the effects of the Government's poor grant settlement to Brighton and Hove City Council biting into services for some of the most vulnerable people in the community.
"While the council has tried to minimise the impact on service-users, it's an inescapable fact that, with job cuts totalling two per cent of the wage budget, services for some of the most vulnerable in our community will suffer."
Leader of the council Simon Burgess said "We are always having to run to keep still, that is why council tax goes up.
"Where we make savings other things start costing more.
"The costs of looking after the elderly, young people and the environment, for instance, is always increasing and we have to carry on caring for people even while Government isn't meeting the increasing costs."
Councillor Paul Elgood said: "We are now concerned cuts are going to be made to frontline services and we are going to lose some of our best staff."
Although the budget has yet to be released, The Argus understands there is a funding gap between what Brighton and Hove City Council needs to spend to maintain services and its Government grant.
It is about 5% of the total budget of £200 million.
In November, it emerged the council would have to find £20 million in savings in the next three years to keep council tax below 4.9%.
This is on top of £3 million of cuts to street cleaning and social services to balance the overspend so far this financial year.
It now appears the council needs to find £9 million in cuts to balance the books next year.
More than 111 posts are expected to be axed, including 24 positions in social services and others from management and administrative roles.
A maximum of 46 redundancies were planned but Unison said the number was falling due to a number of departures and people being moved to different departments.
Adult social services will see savings of £1.7 million, including cuts to agency staff. Schemes such as the Palmeira Project, which looked after disabled children, will now be moved to an alternative service at The Drove in Portslade.
Green councillor Simon Williams said: "We are now seeing the effects of the Government's poor grant settlement to Brighton and Hove City Council biting into services for some of the most vulnerable people in the community.
"While the council has tried to minimise the impact on service-users, it's an inescapable fact that, with job cuts totalling two per cent of the wage budget, services for some of the most vulnerable in our community will suffer."
Leader of the council Simon Burgess said "We are always having to run to keep still, that is why council tax goes up.
"Where we make savings other things start costing more.
"The costs of looking after the elderly, young people and the environment, for instance, is always increasing and we have to carry on caring for people even while Government isn't meeting the increasing costs."
Councillor Paul Elgood said: "We are now concerned cuts are going to be made to frontline services and we are going to lose some of our best staff."
Tuesday, 23 January 2007
Harlow: Closure still an option for NHS walk-in centre
The long term future of Harlow’s walk-in centre is still hanging in the balance, according to the local health chief – reports the Harlow Star.
West Essex Primary Care Trust chief executive Aidan Thomas has confirmed that closure is one of the options he is looking at for the Wych Elm centre.
Mr Thomas told a press conference on Tuesday than nationwide government cuts in the NHS had left the PCT no choice but to look at a number of money-saving ideas. A new PCT strategy is being launched to make £8.5 million of annual savings in future in order to meet government targets.
The PCT has to cut around £750,000 from centre costs to meet the budget shortfall.
Savings elsewhere of £300,000 are set to be made by revising long-term medication prescriptions, and a further £800,000 by giving heart patients cheaper medicine.
Harlow MP Bill Rammell is quoted as saying: "I will do everything in my power to stop closure; I do not believe it will close."
But would that include voting against the EU budget deal, which would save vastly more than the cash needed to keep this centre open?
West Essex Primary Care Trust chief executive Aidan Thomas has confirmed that closure is one of the options he is looking at for the Wych Elm centre.
Mr Thomas told a press conference on Tuesday than nationwide government cuts in the NHS had left the PCT no choice but to look at a number of money-saving ideas. A new PCT strategy is being launched to make £8.5 million of annual savings in future in order to meet government targets.
The PCT has to cut around £750,000 from centre costs to meet the budget shortfall.
Savings elsewhere of £300,000 are set to be made by revising long-term medication prescriptions, and a further £800,000 by giving heart patients cheaper medicine.
Harlow MP Bill Rammell is quoted as saying: "I will do everything in my power to stop closure; I do not believe it will close."
But would that include voting against the EU budget deal, which would save vastly more than the cash needed to keep this centre open?
Monday, 22 January 2007
Sussex: Police facing cuts of £9.4m
Wide-ranging cuts to policing in Sussex are needed to fill a multi-million pound "black hole" in funding caused by government cuts - reports The Argus.
MPs and the Police Federation reacted with fury to news that up to £9.4 million savings must be made by 2010.
Accountants Ernst & Young have already been brought in by Sussex Police to look at the problem and Deputy Chief Constable Geoff Williams has been tasked with leading the "2010 challenge".
The problem is caused by a funding gap between the money likely to be available from government grant and council tax and the amount required to maintain current spending levels.
Sussex Police says it wants to find ways of saving money which will have a minimal effect on frontline policing.
But cuts will have to be made when the projected funding problems begin in 2008 and the Ernst & Young report examined several options for what it described as "disinvestment opportunities".
Among the savings being looked at are:
* Reducing the opening hours of smaller police stations.
* Amalgamating Worthing and Adur districts, and a review of how the Gatwick district fits into the county's force.
* Reducing diversity training.
* Sharing the £500,000-a-year police helicopter with Kent and Surrey.
* Scrapping bonus payments to officers and changing the current shift pattern, described as "not fit for purpose".
* Closing a police training centre, based at a former nuclear bunker site in Kingstanding, near Duddleswell in Ashdown Forest.
* Closing the police's occupational health unit and library.
* Selling off old police station sites in Lewes, Worthing, Crowborough and Petworth - although the towns would be provided with new police stations.
Sussex Police says that if savings are not made it could find itself in the red by between £6.2m and £9.4m in 2010.
Deputy Chief Constable Williams said: "We remain committed to local neighbourhood policing and to strengthening protective services. But we must achieve this against a backdrop of diminishing resources.
Continued effort in reducing the overall budget will now become a regular feature of Force business."
Mark White, secretary of the Sussex Police Federation, said: "Like the police authority, we are disgusted with the lack of government financial support, given that Sussex is already one of the poorest-funded forces in England.
"The Government sets us more and more targets and hoops to jump through and yet it is not willing to give us the money to achieve this. It is disgraceful that when this country is facing the greatest terrorist threat it has ever known, we are expected to fight it with ever-dwindling funds.
"We are a frontline county in the fight against terrorism with our vast coastline and one of the busiest airports in the world. Surely ensuring that we receive adequate funding to continue that fight should be a priority."
MPs were equally furious with the plans.
Wealden MP Charles Hendry said: "This is a retrograde step. The police have been trying to provide longer opening hours and use stations as custody centres, particularly in Crowborough and Hailsham.
"It was starting to make people feel more confident about policing in rural areas and this will totally undermine all the good work. It will be greeted with great dismay."
Worthing West MP Peter Bottomley said of the proposal to merge districts: "MPs will be protesting to the Home Secretary that making a mess of our local policing is not something he needs to do. He should fight the Treasury if necessary."
Lewes MP Norman Baker said: "They are unwelcome and slightly desperate measures. I will strongly oppose any cuts to hours in police stations in my constituency.
"We should be going in the opposite direction, not having closed' signs all over the place. Ernst & Young needs to understand these are not disinvestment opportunities' but cuts."
Ernst & Young urged the police force to make sure that all planning around cuts "is clear and transparent" as this will "help to guard against potential concerns by those working for the force".
MPs and the Police Federation reacted with fury to news that up to £9.4 million savings must be made by 2010.
Accountants Ernst & Young have already been brought in by Sussex Police to look at the problem and Deputy Chief Constable Geoff Williams has been tasked with leading the "2010 challenge".
The problem is caused by a funding gap between the money likely to be available from government grant and council tax and the amount required to maintain current spending levels.
Sussex Police says it wants to find ways of saving money which will have a minimal effect on frontline policing.
But cuts will have to be made when the projected funding problems begin in 2008 and the Ernst & Young report examined several options for what it described as "disinvestment opportunities".
Among the savings being looked at are:
* Reducing the opening hours of smaller police stations.
* Amalgamating Worthing and Adur districts, and a review of how the Gatwick district fits into the county's force.
* Reducing diversity training.
* Sharing the £500,000-a-year police helicopter with Kent and Surrey.
* Scrapping bonus payments to officers and changing the current shift pattern, described as "not fit for purpose".
* Closing a police training centre, based at a former nuclear bunker site in Kingstanding, near Duddleswell in Ashdown Forest.
* Closing the police's occupational health unit and library.
* Selling off old police station sites in Lewes, Worthing, Crowborough and Petworth - although the towns would be provided with new police stations.
Sussex Police says that if savings are not made it could find itself in the red by between £6.2m and £9.4m in 2010.
Deputy Chief Constable Williams said: "We remain committed to local neighbourhood policing and to strengthening protective services. But we must achieve this against a backdrop of diminishing resources.
Continued effort in reducing the overall budget will now become a regular feature of Force business."
Mark White, secretary of the Sussex Police Federation, said: "Like the police authority, we are disgusted with the lack of government financial support, given that Sussex is already one of the poorest-funded forces in England.
"The Government sets us more and more targets and hoops to jump through and yet it is not willing to give us the money to achieve this. It is disgraceful that when this country is facing the greatest terrorist threat it has ever known, we are expected to fight it with ever-dwindling funds.
"We are a frontline county in the fight against terrorism with our vast coastline and one of the busiest airports in the world. Surely ensuring that we receive adequate funding to continue that fight should be a priority."
MPs were equally furious with the plans.
Wealden MP Charles Hendry said: "This is a retrograde step. The police have been trying to provide longer opening hours and use stations as custody centres, particularly in Crowborough and Hailsham.
"It was starting to make people feel more confident about policing in rural areas and this will totally undermine all the good work. It will be greeted with great dismay."
Worthing West MP Peter Bottomley said of the proposal to merge districts: "MPs will be protesting to the Home Secretary that making a mess of our local policing is not something he needs to do. He should fight the Treasury if necessary."
Lewes MP Norman Baker said: "They are unwelcome and slightly desperate measures. I will strongly oppose any cuts to hours in police stations in my constituency.
"We should be going in the opposite direction, not having closed' signs all over the place. Ernst & Young needs to understand these are not disinvestment opportunities' but cuts."
Ernst & Young urged the police force to make sure that all planning around cuts "is clear and transparent" as this will "help to guard against potential concerns by those working for the force".
Grantham: Future looks "gloomy" for Grantham Hospital
The future looks "gloomy" for Grantham Hospital according to members of a group put together suggest a range of options for services - reports the Grantham Journal.
Grantham's Clinical Reference Group - which comprises medical staff from the hospital, managers, a GP and a patient representative - is working to develop medically safe options for the town's services.
But documents given to the Journal in November showed divisions among consultants over what services are safe and how to approach the future of the hospital.
Former hospital medical director Jim Campbell told the meeting he regretted supporting the removal of Level 3 critical care from Grantham.
A&E consultant George Oduro said he believed the position of Grantham Hospital was irretrievable and that the Trust was moving towards one main hospital with a series of smaller supporting hospitals.
He also said managers were trying to shift responsibility for the decision to downgrade Grantham Hospital on to clinicians.
Grantham's Clinical Reference Group - which comprises medical staff from the hospital, managers, a GP and a patient representative - is working to develop medically safe options for the town's services.
But documents given to the Journal in November showed divisions among consultants over what services are safe and how to approach the future of the hospital.
Former hospital medical director Jim Campbell told the meeting he regretted supporting the removal of Level 3 critical care from Grantham.
A&E consultant George Oduro said he believed the position of Grantham Hospital was irretrievable and that the Trust was moving towards one main hospital with a series of smaller supporting hospitals.
He also said managers were trying to shift responsibility for the decision to downgrade Grantham Hospital on to clinicians.
Friday, 19 January 2007
Harrogate: Residents set to face council tax increase
Council tax in Harrogate could go up by 4.4%, reports the Harrogate Advertiser.
Harrogate Borough Councillors are being asked to approve the rise – which is the same as last year’s increase – as part of next year’s budget.
The budget, has already been approved by the council’s cabinet and is set to go to the scrutiny committee and before the full council for final approval.
- Article contributed by: P.C, Dishforth
Harrogate Borough Councillors are being asked to approve the rise – which is the same as last year’s increase – as part of next year’s budget.
The budget, has already been approved by the council’s cabinet and is set to go to the scrutiny committee and before the full council for final approval.
- Article contributed by: P.C, Dishforth
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