New Cross Hospital pays nearly £100k for staff treats

A hospital in the Black Country spent almost £100,000 on gift vouchers for staff, it emerged today — despite planning to axe 300 jobs and save £49 million over the next four years.

Bosses at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton confirmed that every member of staff had received a £20 voucher in December as part of an annual Christmas reward scheme.

The vouchers, bought from a company called Love2Reward, cost the health trust £98,700, and can be used in high street shops including Argos, Wilkinsons and Boots.

The decision to give staff vouchers was made instead of the usual tradition of providing departments with a Christmas meal. It comes as the trust has announced plans to shed 300 jobs with £9m of savings this year and £10m a year up to 2015.

Health chiefs said the jobs will be lost through natural wastage and are likely to affect all areas of the hospital.

For the next two years the cost-cutting will be kept to a minimum but, as the NHS undergoes radical changes, bosses expect that an increased number of jobs will go from 2012 onwards.

David Loughton, chief executive of The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, said today: "We pride ourselves on the hard work, dedication and commitment of our staff.

"Without this the trust would be a very different place and it is important that we actively acknowledge this in some way, given that the people who work in the NHS are our most important resource.

"The trust has traditionally provided staff with Christmas meals which it was unable to do this year and it was therefore decided to offer vouchers instead as a thank-you.

"This represented 0.033 per cent of the trust's overall annual turnover."

Unison spokesman Rob Johnston said the union backed the voucher scheme.

He said: "There is no guarantee this money would be used to save jobs and the staff are facing a bit of an assault at the moment and this is something for them.

"It is separate from the savings the trust is pursuing and is a relatively small amount."