More than 100,000 hospital jobs at risk from NHS revamp

Hospitals in England could cut more than 100,000 jobs as a result of the huge reorganisation and brutal cost-cutting ordered by the health secretary, Wes Streeting, and the NHS's new boss, Sir Jim Mackey.

- Denis Campbell

The scale of looming job losses is so large that NHS leaders have urged the Treasury to cover the costs involved, which they warn could top £2bn, because they do not have the money.

Mackey, NHS England's new chief executive, has told the 215 trusts that provide healthcare across England to cut the costs of their corporate functions - such as HR, finance and communications - by 50% by the end of the year.

But the NHS Confederation, which represents trusts, said some trusts feared that complying with that edict could force them to shed anywhere between 3% and 11% of their entire workforce. If replicated across the 215 trusts, that could lead to job losses ranging from 41,100 to 150,700, given they employ 1.37 million people.

Matthew Taylor, its chief executive, said trusts were being asked to make such "staggering" savings that they might not be able to help banish the long delays patients face for treatment.

He called on the Treasury to create an NHS "national redundancy fund" to foot the bill for job losses because trusts were already too cash-strapped to do so.

His intervention came as Streeting and Mackey prepared to be questioned about their plans today by MPs on the Commons health and social care committee.

The NHS is bracing itself for an unprecedented loss of jobs after the decision by Streeting to abolish NHS England and cull a huge number of managers.