Unison hits out at Rotherham job losses

Trade union Unison has called on The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust to rethink plans that would see hundreds of staff laid off.

Unison claims the trust, which went live with the latest version of Meditech’s electronic patient record this summer, plans to cut 750 jobs over the next three years.

A report to the trust board in October said “compulsory redundancies are inevitable” as it cuts bed numbers and staff to save £50m over four years from its £220m budget.

The report blamed its problems on the “economic downturn” and the ‘Nicholson challenge’ to find £20 billion of efficiency savings across the NHS by 2014-15, to bridge the gap between flat funding and rising demand.

However, a spokesperson from The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust told eHealth Insider the trust has yet to make a formal announcement regarding redundancies or officially launched any consultation process.

In a statement, Brian James, chief executive, said: “Our staff are our biggest asset, but also our biggest cost. We are exploring how to best manage and substantially reduce our costs whilst ensuring we continue to provide quality healthcare.”

The Rotherham has spent approximately £40m on its new EPR system, which it began to implement in June this year, two years after it was first scheduled to launch.

When the trust became one of the first to go outside the National Programme for IT in the NHS in 2009, James said redundancies would be inevitable because the implementation would dramatically reduce its need for medical records staff.

Last week, a spokesperson said it would be “inaccurate to directly align ‘one off’ capital costs with the financial challenges we face, or with our recurrent revenue cost reduction plans.” However, they said that: “Once fully implemented, EPR will support longer term cost reduction.”

Pam Johnson, Unsion head of health for Yorkshire and Humberside said: "Local people and dedicated NHS staff are paying the price for failings on behalf of senior managers in Rotherham, and for the pressure the government has put on NHS budgets.”

All departments in the trust are reviewing their spending, which will be “rigorously quality impact and risk assessed in order to produce tangible cost reduction plans.”

Unison said staff who could lose their jobs included medical secretaries and nursing staff, especially those who care for elderly patients, as well as allied health professionals such as physiotherapists.