Read the attachment, letter "Doctors are Dumbfounded"

Dr John Patterson / Professor John MacFie / Dr Charles Mitchell / Dr David Ford
Dr Ian Renwick / Mr Andrew Robertson / Mr Philip Perry / Dr Udups Venkatesh

OPEN LETTER FROM IAIN McINNES Chief Executive

Iain McInnes has sent the following information in a letter to the press so that our position is understood more widely: " The Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust Board  were briefed on Tuesday about a financial strategy that will protect NHS services for local people. I want to explain what these plans mean and to reassure local people that patient safety is, and will always be, our top priority.

"We need to reduce our expenditure by £28 million over the next three years, we anticipate being able to achieve this by improving the efficiency of the hospital and reshaping the workforce to reflect future demand. This will be done through more and detailed discus­sion with our clinicians, trade unions and staff representatives.

"As far as possible we will do this by reducing the amount we spend on temporary staff and through natural turnover and redeployment. To put this in context, in the last financial year we had a turnover rate of 12% of staff or 300 posts, and spent the equivalent of 40 full-time staff on overtime. This gives us scope for changing the workforce whilst minimising the impact on individuals.

"Rather than make rash, hasty cuts we are involving our doctors and nurses in developing detailed plans for change and we are reviewing the numbers of staff across the whole of the Trust to achieve savings in a managed way that protects patient safety.

"We will continue to work with the Trade Unions to minimise any redundancies and we will ensure that this is done with the best interests of the patients, public and staff in mind.

"I would like to reassure local people that in changing the way we provide our services to reduce costs, we will ensure that patient safety will not be compromised and we will continue to meet national waiting time standards.

"This financial strategy will help Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust become a leaner, stronger, more efficient trust. It is a major change programme that will result in a stronger local service for our patients. These measures are not being taken lightly, but if we fail to act now we face the prospect of being taken over by another Trust within a few years, and the likelihood that services in Scarborough and Bridlington would be reduced.  By taking difficult decisions now we can protect the long-term provision of high quality NHS services for local people."                                

Iain McInnes, Chief Executive