False alarm over hospital job cuts

Apology to radiology staff after scare

HOSPITAL bosses have been forced to apologise to radiology staff at the Royal Oldham Hospital after they were wrongly told they faced job cuts.

Staff across the Pennine Acute Trust, which runs hospitals in Oldham, Rochdale Bury and North Manchester, were told in briefings by a radiology manager that 60 jobs out of 240 were being axed to save cash.

But Trust bosses said the meetings were unauthorised, the information was false and there are no plans to slash radiology posts.

They have now been forced to apologise for the blunder.

All staff were briefed about the error on Friday.

A spokesman for The Pennine Acute Trust said: “We understand a manager within the radiology department has held a series of meetings with staff about efficiency savings and staffing levels without authorisation from their divisional director.

“The circumstances of these meetings is now being investigated.

“We are obviously very disappointed and regret this has happened, and most importantly, we wish to apologise to the staff who attended these meetings for the anxiety and upset this has caused.

“There is no truth in the statement that staff will have to reapply for their own jobs on an annual basis.

“There are no proposals for disinvestment or job reductions in our radiology services.”

The Trust refused to name the manager or say whether any disciplinary action had been taken.

Savings of £45m need to be made next year (2011-12) from the Pennine Acute Trust’s total budget of £580m.

But the spokesman said they would be looking into a range of cost-cutting efficiency measures rather than make compulsory redundancies.

He said: “We have never had to resort to compulsory redundancies in the past and we do not see any reason why we would need to resort to such a measure now.”