Shropshire's major hospital trust to cut 150 jobs amid financial pressures
The trust in charge of Shropshire's major hospitals plans to cut jobs by 150 amid financial pressures.
The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust (SaTH), which runs the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, said it is looking to reduce 150 overall posts to release funding for investment in services and to "stay within budget".
Bosses said compulsory redundancies are always the "last resort" and that the trust will look at a variety of options including redeployment, offering more flexible working hours, and reducing agency and bank spend before these measures. However, they acknowledged that this will be a worrying time for staff.
At a meeting, SaTH's board was told that the trust posted a deficit of £18.6 million at the end of the last financial year.
The trust said it is aiming to save £41.4m by March 2026 through its Cost Improvement Programme.
SaTH chief executive Jo Williams said the trust wants to have the right staff with the relevant skills in the right places. The trust is investing in more than 260 additional roles in areas that it says are "critical" to patient safety.
However, amid financial pressures, SaTH's near-8,000-strong workforce is set to be affected by cuts, and the net loss will be 150 posts.
Jo Williams said: "Our priority is delivering safe services for our patients. To release investment for more modern tools and more services in the community, we need to work differently and stay within our budget.
"This means having the right staff, with the right skills, in the right places to provide excellent care for patients and value for taxpayers. We are also continuing to invest in additional roles.
"Everyone is valued, and we are doing all we can to retain our skilled and experienced staff. We will continue our work to eliminate agency spend, review all vacancies and promote new skills, learning and flexible working opportunities. Compulsory redundancies will always be a last resort, and we aim to keep these as small as possible.
"We know this is a worrying time for some staff and we are committed to doing everything we can to support them through these changes. We would like to thank our staff for everything they are doing to support our patients, and each other."
