Staff cuts as Portsmouth superhospital faces £13m deficit
The body which runs Portsmouth's hospitals is still facing a multi-million pound shortfall in its budget.
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Queen Alexandra Hospital, Cosham, reported a deficit of 13.1m deficit at the end of December last year. The planned position was 2.6m.
But Robert Toole, the trust's finance director, said: 'We are spending more than we expected to do and we are doing everything we can to reduce that.'
The trust has previously admitted overspending on staff, particularly temporary staff.
Now, as 70 per cent of the trust's expenditure is spent on its workforce, a primary measure being taken to claw back some cash is making redundancies.
As previously reported in The News, a total of 231 hospital staff were originally told they would be at risk of redundancy. Some have since left voluntarily.
Ninety-six people now face losing their job, some of which will be redeployed into critical areas.
David Eccles, director of workforce and HR, said: 'It's been an uncomfortable time but we've got to address this problem with staffing.'
Ursula Ward, the chief executive of the trust, said: 'We are trying to do it in the most humane way we can.'
Trust managers assure that where cuts are being made, reviews of how this will affect the quality of care are also being carried out, and the service the hospital provides will not suffer.
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