Staff costs will be reduced in wake of national report, Black Country healthcare meeting hears.

A board meeting of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT) and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust (WHT) on Tuesday heard letters had been sent to staff on Monday warning of 'challenging conditions'  this year in terms of reducing costs whilst maintaining overall quality of services.

A report to the board by chief executive Joe Chadwick Bell said a headcount reduction would be necessary by reducing bank use by 30 per-cent and agency staff by 10-per-cent, plus a possible freeze on recruitment.

Last week Prime Minister Keir Starmer said NHS England will be reintegrated into the UK Department of Health and Social Care within two years, with the government pledging to  reinvest cost savings into frontline service.

Addressing the meeting, the chief executive said: "We will put in place a robust plan and must look on this as a time to change and have a financial reset. 

" NHS trusts have overspent for valid reasons which is why the government is looking at a new operating model.

"Some of the savings in Wolverhampton and Walsall trusts will be done by reducing corporate services and in terms of staffing there may be a hold on recruitment but there are no plans for redundancies.

"We need to maintain staff morale and a letter has gone out to all employees outlining the plans for the rest of 2025 whch will always include maintaining the quality of care for patients which we currently provide."

Group chair Sir David Nicholson said in all his years in the NHS he had seen many changes and he wasn't surprised by the government's plan of action to effectively centralise NHS services.

He said: "It is potentially a big change but that is not unusual when a new government comes in. I have seen it before and they probably feel they have one chance to bring in a review or implement what they want to do before another general election is on us.

"It is an opportunity and the central strategy will shape what services are going to look like across the Black Country, not just in our trusts but with the Integrated Care Board for what will probably be a ten year plan.

"We need to hold out nerve and see what this will bring as we think of the long term effects on services and we may need much greater alignment in services across the board.

Sir David ruled out the merging of trusts on operational basis in the short term, saying NHS England had said it would be  implemented in three months if it went through. 

But he said it would take at least six to nine months to integrate them