A health organisation has shelled out almost £2.3m in redundancy pay-outs, figures revealed today.
NHS Central Lancashire, the primary care trust for Preston, Chorley and South Ribble, spent £2.298m laying off staff during 2010/11.
This is the highest amount spent on redundancy among the 24 PCTs in the North West and is almost three times more than Manchester PCT.
So far, 25 non-clinical staff have been made redundant, along with one clinical.
Another 13 clinical staff have taken the “mutually assisted resignation scheme” (MARS), along with 29 non clinical.
A leaked Department of Health report shows just over £29.5m has been set aside in Central Lancashire to pay for the reorganisation in the form of a Government ordered 2% PCT budget hold back in 2011/12 and 2012/13.
Tim Ellis, regional organiser for UNISON, said: “It is concerning that the NHS is being forced to spend so much on making people redundant rather than improving services.
“The money spent wastefully so far on redundancies is regrettably small compared to what will be spent over the next two years.”
Chorley MP Lindsay Hoyle, said: “People will want to know why our local NHS has been forced to waste £2.298m on payouts, only for many of the same staff to be re-employed in the new NHS organisations.
“This is only the first wave of redundancies – more are expected later this year.”
John Critchley, NHS Central Lancashire locality director of finance, said “management and corporate cost savings were made as part of a restructure in 2010. He said: “Every effort was made to try to avoid unnecessary redundancies through the retraining and redeployment of staff wherever possible.
“Some staff also chose to take advantage of the Government’s voluntary severance scheme (MARS).”
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