Thousands of NHS jobs axed

The mass cull is part of 22,300 posts that have disappeared across the country, according to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

Almost three-quarters of newly-qualified nurses were unable to find jobs and the RCN blamed "rushed, uncosted and untested" government reforms.

Hospital bosses in the region today said they felt sorry for newly-qualified nurses facing a battle for a dwindling number of positions.

David Loughton, chief executive of the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, which cut 150 nursing posts last year said the situation was hard on nurses.

He said: "I have a great deal of sympathy with the nurses. It's sad that yet again the NHS has got its manpower planning wrong. I remember the last time we got ourselves into this position. It happened in the late 1980s and early 1990s."

Mr Loughton added he planned to make further reductions this year as part of £10 million of saving aimed at achieving financial balance.

Other hospital chiefs disputed the RCN figures.

Martin Yeates, chief executive of Mid Staffordshire General Hospitals NHS Trust, said he did not recognise them.

He said: "The trust did have a reduction in workforce numbers last year in order to contribute to the £10million income and expenditure gap." He added the planned reduction announced in March 2006 was 160 posts – more than the 92 quoted by the RCN. That was made up of two-thirds non-clinical staff and one third clinical staff.

In an RCN survey, 87 per cent of specialist nurses said NHS cuts were having an adverse effect on patient care.

Nearly half were aware of service cuts and almost one in five said they were personally at risk of redundancy.

Health Minister Andy Burnham said the RCN's figures presented an "outdated and misleading picture".

He said there had been 1,446 compulsory redundancies of which 303 were clinical positions like doctors, adding 85,000 more nurses had been recruited since 1997 and wages had risen from £12,000 to nearly £20,000.