Derbyshire NHS will do 'everything possible' to avoid redundancies

£180M BUDGET CUTS COULD PUT MORE THAN 550 JOBS AT RISK

- By EDDIE BISKNELL

MORE than 550 Derbyshire NHS staff could lose their jobs in a bid to cut budgets by more than £180 million.

Derbyshire's NHS organisations are facing budget cuts over the next year totalling £181.7m and part of those aims will include trimming 1.8 per cent of its workforce, health reports and officials detail.

More than 30,700 people work for Derbyshire's NHS, across six different organisations along with GPs, dentists and other providers, NHS reports say, with job cuts to equate to 553 staff set to lose their jobs over the next year.

Officials say they aim to make these job cuts through not recruiting to vacant posts (unless essential for patient safety) and reducing staff sickness absence, pledging to "do everything possible to avoid redundancies".

The cuts will also see a 30 per cent cutback in money spent on agency staff and 10 per cent on bank staff spending, who fill gaps in rotas, often in the evenings or at week-ends, and are frequently fulfilled by existing staff doing overtime.

Bank and agency staff have previously told the Derby Telegraph that they rely on these extra shifts to cover their bills, in lieu of salary increases.

This year, Derbyshire NHS is spending £49million on bank staff and £21.8m on agency staff, with officials detailing "bank or agency staff are not substantive employees and therefore are not subject to redundancy".