A UNION last night attacked plans to cut thousands of NHS jobs, claiming it would put “incredible pressure” on health service staff in Oxfordshire.

It came as the county’s primary care trust NHS Oxfordshire said it needed to find £100m worth of “workforce savings” over four years.

The trust said 1,900 jobs would be cut initially, but a health staff union last night suggested more than 4,000 posts could be axed.

NHS Oxfordshire insisted it could hit the target through “natural staff turnover” and using fewer agency workers.

But Ian McKendrick, branch secretary of Unison in Oxfordshire, said: “Losing 1,900 posts means they are going to have fewer people doing the work.

“I can’t see how this will not impact on services.

“They are trying to say they are just not going to sack anyone, but they have said they will just not replace them. It will put incredible pressure on existing staff and it will impact hugely on services.”

It had been thought the trust would have to find £45m of “workforce savings”, but now an extra £55m will have to be made.

NHS Oxfordshire said union predictions of 4,250 job cuts were wrong, but last night couldn’t say how many posts were under threat.

The PCT said it would continue to recruit essential specialist clinical posts, which include doctors and nurses.

But it added: “The national economic challenge to the public sector does mean that there will be fewer healthcare jobs going forward.”

Dr Peter Skolar, who is chairman of Oxfordshire joint health overview and scrutiny committee, said: “They have to get rid of people because that is where they spend their money and they will have to change the way services are delivered.

“We are hoping it will be done through management and not front-line services.

“If and when the trust come out with plans we will have to look at them.”

Money-saving measures set out by NHS Oxfordshire include reducing the use of temporary staff and office restructuring.

In July, plans were revealed to change the way nurses at city hospitals were paid during their breaks, in a cost-saving measure.

The trust said it would work to avoid redundancies wherever possible.

Sir Jonathan Michael, chief executive of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, said savings would include asking people to work in new roles and areas.

The trust employs 7,921 staff, 4,122 of which are fron-line medical posts.

At Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Trust, 2,196 of the 2,928 staff are front-line, while NHS Oxfordshire employs 2,024 – 1,790 on the front-line.

Unison is organising a protest against cuts to public services in Cornmarket Street, Oxford, on Wednesday, at 5.30pm.

  • NHS Oxfordshire’s statement in full: THE Quality, Improvement, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) paper that was presented to the Board of NHS Oxfordshire on 23 September 2010 provided an estimate of local workforce changes that would need to be made up to 2014.

This predicts the possible impact of the national expectations that NHS trusts will make savings to provide more efficient services. It is important to understand that workforce cost reductions are not solely met in reductions of numbers of staff.

Much of these savings can be achieved through other means and not just by reductions in the number of staff.

Examples include: reducing the use of temporary staff, reviewing the skill mix of staff we have providing the various services, whilst ensuring safe levels of care for patients. Increasing the productivity of what we are doing will also significantly help reduce workforce costs – ensuring we provide care in the right place, at the right time, reviewing how we provide our services and the implementation of planned organisational restructuring (which will result in back office efficiencies).

Whilst managing natural turnover, we will continue to recruit to essential specialist clinical posts.

NHS organisations in Oxfordshire are continuing to manage natural turnover.

The average national turnover for staff is 11 per cent. Oxfordshire natural turnover is in line with the national average of 11 per cent per year.Therefore, the annual figures which add up to 1,900 job reductions to which Unison refers to, can be managed well within expected turnover levels. In addition, the 1,900 jobs reduction includes current vacancies, not actual staff in posts.

This does not take account of these other ways of making efficiencies.

The national economic challenge to the public sector does mean that there will be fewer healthcare jobs going forward. Trusts in Oxfordshire will work together to avoid redundancies wherever possible.