Patients will not be put at risk by job cuts, say Barts Health bosses

Bosses at Barts Health NHS Trust have said they will not compromise the safety of its patients as nurses leaders warn there will be 220 jobs cut by Christmas.

The Royal College of Nursing has raised concerns about patient safety, saying Barts Health has confirmed plans to cut 220 posts and downgrade a further 470.

Earlier this year the Trust placed itself in financial turnaround to tackle its financial difficulties and launched a consultation.

Bernell Bussue, RCN London Regional Director, said: “The cuts at Barts are being rushed through to save as much money as possible, and the result is that patients will be put at risk.

“Barts has already been criticised by the CQC for being short staffed. Mass job cuts are only going to make this situation worse.”

A spokeswoman for the Trust said: “Barts Health will not compromise the safety of its patients under any circumstances and the proposed changes mean that we will be staffing above the levels recommended as clinically safe by The Royal College of Nursing itself.

“There will be 161 fewer nursing posts across the Trust following the consultation. The proposed reduction of 161 posts is less than 3 per cent of the total number of nursing posts across the Trust.

“Every effort will be made to re-deploy staff whose position is lost, to one of our many vacancies for qualified and unqualified nurses. This will mean that roles previously filled by agency staff, will now be filled permanently by staff members whose position has become redundant in the review.”

*The 220 posts include some admin and clerical roles in addition to 161 nursing posts.