Hundreds of NHS staff 'redeployed' since June in Staffordshire
Hundreds of NHS workers in Staffordshire have been saved from the axe in three months – while health bosses are still desperately trying to fill around 1,500 vacancies in the county.
Since June around 200 staff have been ‘redeployed’ to different positions because their original jobs were put at risk.
The move has resulted in a saving in excess of £500,000 which would have had to be forked out in redundancy fees – a much needed boost to the coffers considering Staffordshire’s collective NHS bodies are facing a £161m black hole by the end of the year.
The figures have been revealed in the latest report on the controversial Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP).
The five-year strategy was published last December proposing sweeping cuts to services across the county including major implications for A&E departments and community hospitals.
Now, nine month on, chiefs have provided a progress update on the project.
The report states: "The transformation of health and care is going to result in people needing to change roles. The retention of key skills and competencies is a priority of the local area.
"There are currently around 1,500 NHS vacancies across a range of bands and specialisms including nursing, medical consultants, allied health professionals, administration and a range of support roles.
"A centralised NHS re-deployment team has been funded for 12 months.
"The team maintain a central redeployment register and manage each person on the register, proactively matching the member of staff at risk with potential suitable employment, arranging for them to be interviewed and then collating feedback from interview panels."
The savings made already have already paid for the cost of the redeployment team, the report adds.
Staffordshire's STP, named 'Together We're Better', is one of 44 which have been launched to oversee dramatic changes in healthcare across the country.
In July it was one of only five given the basement rating by the NHS of 'needs most improvement'.
However chiefs have stated that is a reflection of current 'performance' of health services across the county rather than a reflection on the plan itself.
The latest report adds: "Together We’re Better was one of only five placed in this category. The dashboard is a measure of the current system performance and not a measure of the plan or the Partnership. Clearly this is not what we aspire to for our local population and we have a collective responsibility to do better."
