200 NHS staff face redundancy as health board makes cuts
The move will not affect frontline healthcare workers
Up to 200 people could be made redundant as an NHS board attempts to cut costs by 50 percent.
The move will not affect frontline healthcare workers but back-office staff working for NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board (ICBs).
The board, which manages a budget of £2.2 billion, is responsible for commissioning healthcare services in the two counties.
Most ICBs are expected to do this by ‘clustering’ with a neighbouring health board.
ICBs have been set a target of halving their costs by the Government, as part of wide-ranging health reforms that will also see the abolition of NHS England.
Simon Trickett, chief executive of NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB, said: “We are now in the midst of a re-organisation of how the management of integrated care boards work.
“We won’t merge ICBs but we will share management and leadership capacity and have one team running two ICBs – Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB and Coventry and Warwickshire ICB.
“The net result of that will be a 50 percent reduction in running costs – that equates to £23m. This is a lot of money taken out of management to be available to put into frontline care.”
He told Worcestershire County Council’s health and wellbeing board on Tuesday (June 17): “It is a lot of jobs that will be lost through redundancy.
“I think in Herefordshire and Worcestershire we will have to make between 150 and 200 redundant as a result of this.”
Mr Trickett said the ICBs won’t be merged at the moment because the government wants health boards to align with strategic mayoral authorities.
The deal with Coventry and Warwickshire ICB is therefore an “interim arrangement that can allow the savings to be delivered”, he said.
Cllr Andrew Willmott said: “You’re taking a huge chunk out of your organisation and at the moment you seem to have comparatively good results. Are you confident that can continue after the restructure?”
Mr Trickett said some of the savings will be made by not having to service NHS England infrastructure.
He said the role of the board is also changing, with staff being asked to be less “hands-on” as it becomes a more strategic commissioner.
“The NHS in this part of the country is far from perfect but we have made some good progress,” said Mr Trickett. “We want to continue that. I won’t be willing to compromise things that make a difference for patients to hit this target.”
Lisa McNally, director of public health for Worcestershire, said ICB staff were still “full of enthusiasm” despite it being a “time of uncertainty”.
NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB employs 408 members of staff, working the equivalent of 322 full-time roles.