NHS jobs and bed cuts for Northumberland and Tyneside
Jul 30 2010 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal
HUNDREDS of beds and jobs are to be cut at hospitals in Northumberland and Tyneside as health chiefs look to change the way they treat the ill.
NHS North of Tyne has put together a confidential paper outlining how 451 beds will be reduced at hospitals across Newcastle and Northumberland by 2014.
The authority insists the move makes sense as more people are being treated in the community rather than needing longer hospital stays.
But their hand appears to have been forced by the coalition Government’s insistence that savings are made across the NHS.
A publicly-available five-year plan sets out how bosses will change health care to “reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and provide care as close to home as possible”.
But a confidential document seen by The Journal states that beds lost by the Newcastle and Northumbria hospitals trusts – including day beds and critical beds – are likely to amount to a 14% cut.
The workforce shake-up is justified by the need to focus on preventative care and the expectation that people who come to hospital will not have to stay as long as they previously might.
As a result, nearly 10% of jobs in some hospital departments could be targeted, but these are made up for by an increase in new roles for staff in areas such as prevention and community work.
Overall NHS North of Tyne expects to see a loss of 166 posts by 2014.
Newcastle Central MP Chi Onwurah said that while she supports the need for more frontline care, NHS North of Tyne had to be clear about what could be achieved and what the reasons are for losing “around one in eight beds”.
She added: “This says to me that this is a massive change and the reasons for this are obviously as much financial as they are for the proper aims of changing public health.
“It is unacceptable to have these forced onto us for purely financial reasons. The fear is that people in the North of Tyne patch will see drastic changes to their health services and that this will be done to cut costs.”
The potential of closing some parts of the two hospitals’ estates is also raised in the End State Visions document.
Such a move would impact on Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust including the RVI, Freeman and General Hospitals and Northumbria Healthcare Foundation Trust which runs North Tyneside General, Wansbeck and Hexham General hospitals.
The planning document also confirms plans to transform GP care, with many smaller practices across the region coming together to form fewer larger practices.
