Nurses angry over Health job losses

CUTS in Guernsey's health service will affect front line services. Some staff have been made redundant as part of a move to lose more than 40 posts at the Health and Social Services Department as it makes savings to meet this year's budget.

An angry Bev Clark, chairwoman of the Royal College of Nursing Guernsey branch, said that just under 20 were nursing jobs.

'I am appalled. It makes me question what sort of health service we want,' she said.

'It is important that the public realise that this will affect service delivery. And this is just the first time. There is nothing to say that there will not be the need to save the same amount of money again next year and there may not be vacancies then and we will be talking about more front line staff going.'

The RCN was helping people come to terms with the fact that they were effectively redundant.

The department's chief officer, David Hughes, said yesterday that most of the positions were already vacant.

But some workers have just been told that they are effectively being made redundant.

Mr Hughes said that the aim was to make most cuts though natural wastage or redeployment to other jobs.

'We will look to find them posts but there is the potential that we will not be able to do that,' said deputy minister David Grut.

Health employs about 2,000 people. Mr Hughes said that the posts affected were across all levels of the organisation, from front line staff to senior management.

Savings will be made by:

n reducing the numbers of beds in the PEH;

n changing the School Dental Service;

n reducing the number of directorates;

n raising charges;

n delaying the introduction of essential services.

'The Health and Social Services Department is not immune from savings that the States as a whole is needing to make to meet its budgets,' said Deputy Grut.

'We are needing to be proactive in reducing what is our largest overhead, which is staffing.'

Mr Hughes said that an agreement had been made with staff organisations to allow people whose jobs were under threat to be slotted into other suitable posts. And for some jobs, applications will be restricted to those whose ones are in jeopardy.

'We are trying to make these as painless as possible to our staff, but the reality is that we have been forced by the budget to make these reductions and we have made them in administration savings wherever possible in an effort to maintain the quality of our front line services,' said Deputy Grut.

'One of the things that we have to accept is that because of reductions in administration staff we will not be able to give as much administration support to services and we are not going to be able to give as quick or as efficient a service to those people who make enquiries to the department.'

Deputy Grut said that bed numbers were able to be cut because of lower occupancy rates as more people were being treated at home.

Some services the department was looking to introduce last year had not happened in anticipation of the cuts. Any charges raised would be those having least impact on those most in need.

One major change is that Keith Sirett, the retiring director of adult acute services, has not been replaced.