Routine operations cuts are part of hospital trust plans

JOBS could go at the Royal Oldham Hospital as part of a £120million efficiency drive.

The Pennine Acute Trust plans to save £20 million of its current £545 million annual budget (3.5 per cent) this year (2010-2011).

Further savings of £25million (4.5per cent) need to be made over the next four yeas. And as a result, the trust, which runs hospitals in Oldham, Rochdale, North Manchester and Bury and employs around 10,000 staff, is set to introduce a series of measures.

These include:

::Cutting routine operations at evenings and weekends.

::Reducing outpatient clinic cancellations.

::Reviewing staff sickness absence rates.

The top 150 earners within the Trust will have their pay reviewed and all first class travel among staff will be scrapped, a move which will save £40,000 a year.

Senior management recruitment will also be stopped.

John Saxby, chief executive, refused to rule out redundancies but was confident staff levels could be reduced by redeployment and retirements.

He said: “This is not a ‘knee jerk’ and ‘slash and burn’ initiative.

“The nature and scale of of the problem were outlined last year and we have been carefully considering the ways in which we deliver our services with less.”