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Department of Health

In the past week, north Staffordshire communities have been left reeling by the extent of the proposed redundancies at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire Trust, which is one of 18 NHS trusts currently receiving extra support from the turnaround team to help recover its financial balance. In order to bridge the £30 million gap between income and expenditure and start to repay some of the debt, the trust plans to save around £43 million over the next two years. That is a tough task, but the new interim chief executive Anthony Sumara is probably the person to do it. About 70 per cent. of the trust’s annual expenditure goes on pay, so it is clear that jobs must go, but the prospect of 1,000 jobs going has sent shock waves throughout north Staffordshire. Anyone with extensive experience of the hospital in the past couple of years—sadly, I have had that experience—knows that it was badly managed.