HUNDREDS of jobs will be axed at the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General hospitals as they aim to save £131million over the next five years, a leading campaigner has predicted.

Patients champion Russ McLean said a huge shortfall in government funding meant jobs on the front line were threatened as East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT) attempted to balance its budget.

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The trust has put forward dozens of ideas to save £26 million per year without shedding staff, and said there were no planned redundancies.

Amongst its proposals are reducing inappropriate hospital admissions and delayed discharges, quicker diagnosis, partnering with other organisations, and optimising use of its estate.

But with two-thirds of its budget spent on staff, Mr McLean said job losses were ‘inevitable’.

The chairman of the Pennine Lancashire Patient Voices Group said: “Savings of this size will always mean job cuts, and hundreds of posts are likely to go.

“You’ve got to sympathise with the trust because they just aren’t being given enough money. We should also remember that serious staff shortages were one of the main reasons for the them being placed in special measures in 2013, and they’ve only just got out of that mess.”

With two-thirds of the budget spent on staff, and an average nurse salary at around £25,000, a crude calculation suggests the trust would have to reduce its workforce by 680 posts to find the savings, although this does not take other cost-saving measures into account.

The trust, which also runs the community hospitals in Clitheroe, Accrington and Pendle, employs 6,775 staff in total.

But in a plan presented to board members by finance director Jonathan Wood, he spoke of ‘workforce transformation’ rather than job losses.

He suggested various measures including a shift to employ lower skilled and lower paid staff, increasing the use of 12-hour shifts to reduce handover times, using volunteers, reviewing terms and conditions and reducing the long-standing reliance on expensive agency staff.

He also referred to a review of managerial and administrative staff, which could mean single management structures for reception and booking staff, medical secretaries and allied health professionals.

The Lancashire Telegraph asked the trust if there would be a reduction in the workforce as a result of the plans, which could be achieved without redundancies using methods such as not replacing staff that retire or leave, but bosses declined to answer this question.

David Smithson, head of human resources at ELHT, said: “We recognise that the majority of organisational costs relate to people and to meet the financial challenge we will need to reduce the costs of our workforce.

“However it is important to stress that we plan to do this through the transformation of our workforce and not by making redundancies.”

The trust predicts its income will remain stable at about £420 million, but savings are needed due to a number of cost pressures, such as pay and drugs inflation and increasing legal costs.

Mr Wood’s plan also points to potential savings through a reduction of inappropriate hospital admissions and delayed discharges, enabling the potential closure of 125 beds, quicker diagnosis and treatment leading to reduced patient harm and subsequent costs, partnering with other organisations, redesigning services and optimising use of the estate.

A previous five-year forecast, drawn up by ELHT in 2013, said the workforce would have to be reduced by about 500 full-time equivalent posts to save £85 million. This plan was later scrapped when NHS inspectors identified serious staff shortages and placed the organisation in special measures. After a successful recruitment drive it now employs 540 more staff than it did in April 2013, when the inspection took place.

Sean Gibson, who represents staff in the Unison union, said: “It is a real struggle for the NHS to meet growing public health needs and to staff services safely.

“The proportion of the country’s income that is put into the NHS is declining under the current Government. By 2020 it is projected to decline by 25 per cent from its peak in 2009.

“Despite the talk of the NHS budget being ‘protected’ we are in fact, as a society, going through a period where we’re giving less and less priority to our health service.

“Health trusts like East Lancs are under real financial pressure and we will be encouraging the trust to use their resources wisely. Safe staffing levels are vital for service quality and patient well-being and we will be working to ensure that the trust does not cut back on staff. We will work to protect our members from the risk of compulsory redundancy.”