Up to 300 jobs could go at hospital Trust

Up to 300 jobs could go at the Pennine Acute Trust, Rochdale Online can reveal.

Top hospital bosses have discussed that hundreds of job cuts could be made as the Trust faces financial difficulties.

The revelation follows a week long silence from the Trust, which runs the Rochdale Infirmary, over redundancies and staff being told in a briefing by Trust Chief Executive, John Saxby, that no decisions about redundancies have yet been made.

However, at a meeting of the Central Joint Negotiation and Consultation Committee held on 1 December, where seven Trust directors were in attendance, Barbara Herring, the Acting Director of Finance, revealed there could be a further loss of posts.

The notes of the meeting, seen by Rochdale Online, state:

Gemma Wild stated that after 9 months of planning, she assumed that there would be no further reduction in staffing levels. 

Barbara Herring replied that potentially there could be a further loss of 200-300 wte posts. 

Gemma Wild asked when it was likely that the Trust would know whether there would be a further reduction in staffing.  Roger Pickering responded that plans were being shared with the Commissioners and that we were awaiting a decision.  The Trust Board would be discussing this issue in detail.