Job losses at NHS MK

18 August 2010, 15:52 | Updated: 18 August 2010, 16:20

NHS Milton Keynes has announced plans to make around 40 of its staff redundant.

A four-week consultation period started there yesterday (Tuesday), after NHS Milton Keynes' Board agreed last month to cut the number of full time posts from 156 to 116.

The jobs are going to go in the autumn, as part of plans to restructure the organisation. NHS MK needs to make annual staff savings of more than £1.75 million.

NHS Milton Keynes is responsible for purchasing the health services which the local community uses and for making sure they provide high-quality care to patients. Milton Keynes Community Health Services - which provides front-line community and mental health services - isn't affected.

Dr Nicholas Hicks, Chief Executive of NHS Milton Keynes and the borough's Public Health Director, said:

"The NHS is facing some of its biggest challenges in the next few years with much smaller increases in funding and an ageing and more dependent population. In Milton Keynes we also have the challenge of ensuring we can fund services for a rapidly growing population."

"The changes NHS Milton Keynes is about to make will allow us to focus on ensuring patients continue to receive safe care, assisting local GPs as they take on the responsibility for purchasing health services and making the savings needed to cope with increased demands on front line services."

The Primary Care Trust's Chairman, Malcolm Brighton, added:

"This is a very difficult time for all our staff who work tirelessly in the interests of local patients. I am immensely proud of what they as individuals, and as part of the NHS Milton Keynes team, have achieved."

The consultation with staff ends on the 16th September.