Essex and Suffolk hospital job cuts may harm patient care
A search for voluntary resignations at a health trust's hospitals "could harm patient care", a union has warned.Staff at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), which runs Colchester, Ipswich and some community hospitals, have been invited to apply as part of a government drive to cut down on back-office tasks.Unison also claimed the payout for staff who opted to resign would be less than they would get under an ordinary redundancy scheme.The trust said the scheme would "achieve significant savings" and was not open to clinical staff.
Health trusts across the country have been asked to reduce bureaucracy as part of the government's efforts to slim down administration in the NHS.The biggest change will be the abolition of NHS England, but hospitals are being asked to do their bit.ESNEFT said it was "offering staff in administrative and clerical roles the opportunity to apply to leave the trust under a mutually agreed resignation scheme"."The trust is launching the scheme, along with a recruitment freeze on posts in administrative, clerical and corporate functions, to achieve significant savings during the current financial year," it said.However, Unison said the "targeted staff play a key role in helping clinicians deliver patient care".It added that the payout on offer to staff was "less than they would receive under a regular redundancy scheme".
The union's Colchester and Ipswich area health branch secretary Natasha Hunt, a nurse at the trust, said: "This is bad news for staff and patients. Anyone working in the NHS knows the vital contribution made every day by administrative employees. "Without the support of administrators - nurses, doctors and other overstretched healthcare professionals will be forced to spend more time on clerical tasks and less time caring for patients."The NHS needs real investment in its workforce, not destructive staff cuts."
ESNEFT's chief executive Nick Hulme said: "Taking these steps will help us to achieve the savings we need to make while protecting our frontline services and retaining staff who wish to remain in employment."I'd like to offer my reassurance that while we go through this process, we will make sure our services remain safe. People in our communities will continue to get the care, treatment and support they need, when they need it."The trust said it would not undertake any more savings schemes in this financial year.
Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
37 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Ozempic-maker's new fat-busting drug cuts body weight by a quarter - and it comes as a jab or a PILL
A new fat-busting drug that is available as a jab or tablet helps patients lose up to a quarter of their body weight, studies suggest. People who received higher doses of amycretin as a weekly injection lost 24.3 per cent of their body weight after 36 weeks of treatment. And those taking daily tablets lost an average of 13.1 per cent of their body weight after 12 weeks, the early stage trials found. Weight loss jabs have been hailed as transformative by NHS leaders. But tablets could be the next big breakthrough in the nation's fight against obesity as they are likely to appeal to a wider audience who are uncomfortable with injecting themselves. An estimated 1.5million Britons use weight loss jabs, which have been either prescribed through specialist weight loss services or private prescriptions. GPs will be able to dish out fat jabs from next week. Amycretin, made by Novo Nordisk, helps to control blood sugar and appetite by targeting two specific receptors in the body—GLP-1 and the amylin receptor. In comparison to amycretin, trials pivotal to getting semaglutide—the ingredient behind Ozempic—approved, show it helped users shed up to 15 per cent of their body weight over 68 weeks. And studies have found rival jab Mounjaro can help obese people lose up to 22.5 per cent of their body weight in 72 weeks. The new amycretin trial involved 125 adults, who took weekly injections of the drug. Those taking the highest dosage (60mg) lost 24.3 per cent after 36 weeks of treatment. It also showed signs in improving blood sugar levels. Side effects included nausea and vomiting and were mostly mild to moderate and resolved by the end of treatment, according to findings published in medical journal The Lancet. 'These phase 1b/2a data support the potential of once-weekly subcutaneous amycretin as a therapeutic for people living with overweight or obesity,' the authors wrote. 'Amycretin appeared safe and tolerable, and there were significant reductions in body weight after 36 weeks of treatment.' The second early trial, published in the same journal, assessed amycretin in tablet form in 144 people over 12 weeks. There were mild to moderate side effects including loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting. Researchers found that people taking the highest dose of 100mg per day, lost 13.1 per cent of their body weight over four months. The authors wrote: 'Amycretin effectively lowered body weight and improved metabolic and glycaemic parameters in people with overweight or obesity. 'Longer studies with more participants are warranted for evaluation of the safety and efficacy of amycretin in individuals living with obesity and type 2 diabetes, and to optimise the dosing regimen.' The studies were also presented at the American Diabetes Association's Scientific Sessions in Chicago, in the US. It comes as a separate study, which was published at the same meeting, examined the effects of weight loss jab Wegovy at higher doses. Researchers found that giving patients 7.2mg of Wegovy, also known as semaglutide, once a week led to an average weight loss of 20.7 per cent, with a third of participants losing 25 per cent or more of their body weight after 72 weeks. GLP-1 injections suffered global shortages after celebrity users sparked a surge in popularity and the NHS has warned people against buying them from unauthorised sources. Professor Sir Stephen Powis, national medical director at NHS England, last week told the NHS ConfedExpo conference in Manchester that weight loss jabs could be doled out as widely as statins if competition in the market brings their price down The country's top doctor warned obesity costs the NHS £11.4billion every year and described the financial burden as 'unsustainable'. From Monday, GPs will be able to prescribe the fat jab mounjaro - also known as tirzepatide - for the first time, in what he labelled an 'exciting milestone'.
The Independent
40 minutes ago
- The Independent
Weight loss pill set to rival injections after promising studies
A new daily weight loss pill has shown promising results in initial studies. Researchers say amycretin, which can be offered by injection or tablet, helped patients lose a significant amount of weight in the first trials. Those who received higher doses of amycretin as a weekly jab lost 24.3 per cent of their body weight after 36 weeks of treatment, while patients who took daily tablets lost an average of 13.1 per cent of their body weight after 12 weeks. While weight loss jabs have been hailed as transformative by NHS leaders, injections come with additional work for over-stretched health services, so tablet forms of medication may offer a new hope for the millions of people looking to lose weight. It has been estimated that around 1.5 million Britons are having weight loss jabs, which have been either prescribed through specialist weight loss services or private prescriptions. GPs will be able to dish out jabs from next week. Amycretin, made by Novo Nordisk, helps to control blood sugar and appetite by targeting two specific receptors in the body – GLP-1 and the amylin receptor. An early trial in 125 adults testing weekly injections of amycretin, which has been published in The Lancet, found that those taking the highest dosage (60mg) lost 24.3 per cent after 36 weeks of treatment. It also showed signs of improving blood sugar levels. Side effects included nausea and vomiting, and were mostly mild to moderate and resolved by the end of treatment. 'These phase 1b/2a data support the potential of once-weekly subcutaneous amycretin as a therapeutic for people living with overweight or obesity,' the authors wrote. 'Amycretin appeared safe and tolerable, and there were significant reductions in body weight after 36 weeks of treatment.' The second early trial, published in the same journal, assessed amycretin in tablet form in 144 people over 12 weeks. There were mild to moderate side effects including loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting. Researchers found that people taking the highest dose of 100mg per day, lost 13.1 per cent of their body weight over four months. The authors wrote: 'Amycretin effectively lowered body weight and improved metabolic and glycaemic parameters in people with overweight or obesity. 'Longer studies with more participants are warranted for evaluation of the safety and efficacy of amycretin in individuals living with obesity and type 2 diabetes, and to optimise the dosing regimen.' The studies were also presented at the American Diabetes Association 's Scientific Sessions in Chicago, in the US. It comes as a separate study, which was published at the same meeting, examined the effects of weight loss jab Wegovy at higher doses. Researchers found that giving patients 7.2mg of Wegovy, also known as semaglutide, once a week led to an average weight loss of 20.7 per cent, with a third of participants losing 25 per cent or more of their body weight after 72 weeks.
Daily Mail
44 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Is the controversial suicide capsule coming to Britain? Australian right-to-die campaigner known as 'Dr Death' aims to bring euthanasia pod to the UK
A controversial suicide capsule could be coming to the UK after the assisted dying Bill passed its final Commons vote yesterday. Dr Philip Nitschke, the Australian right-to-die campaigner known as 'Dr Death' who is behind the Sarco euthanasia pod, said he will be 'enthusiastically' seeking to bring the technology to Britain for the first time. The coffin-like device offers patients a way to end their lives painlessly by flooding a sealed chamber with nitrogen gas that leads to loss of consciousness and death within ten minutes. A camera records their final moments and the video is sent to a coroner. Dr Nitschke said he intends to start 'enthusiastically pursuing the option of using the device in the UK' as soon as the assisted dying Bill becomes law. The campaigner said he has already had inquiries from 15 Britons seeking to use the Sarco pod and expects this number to increase with the passing of the Bill. 'We'll be looking to find UK-registered doctors to assist and of course someone who wants to use it and satisfies all of the requirements under the law,' he told The Times. 'The doctors involved would know that this would attract attention and possible close scrutiny, which by and large most doctors aren't enthusiastic about, so we'd have to find someone a little crusading.' If it becomes law, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill will let terminally ill adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live apply for an assisted death. The person wishing to die would take an approved substance, provided by a doctor but administered only by the person themselves. So far the Bill does not detail what the medication should be. Last year police made arrests after the Sarco pod was used for the first time by a 64-year-old American woman in Switzerland. Swiss authorities confiscated the capsule and took one of the pod company's founders, Florian Willet, who was present at the death, into custody on suspicion of aiding and abetting suicide. He was detained for ten weeks after police claimed there were strangulation marks on the neck of woman who had died. It comes after MPs on both sides of the assisted dying debate made impassioned interventions ahead of the Commons vote yesterday. Former home secretary Sir James Cleverly opened the debate for opponents of the Bill, speaking movingly of losing his closest friend to cancer this year as he warned that he could have 'lost' these precious final moments had assisted dying been available. Meanwhile Mother of the House Diane Abbott described it as the 'most fateful Bill that we discuss this Parliament'. The Labour MP warned that, under the Bill in its current form, 'there will be people among the most vulnerable and marginalised in our society who lose their lives unnecessarily'. 'It is literally a matter of life and death,' she added. 'I have heard talk today of the injustices of the current situation. What could be more unjust than someone losing their life because of poorly drafted legislation?' Former security minister Tom Tugendhat warned that legalising assisted dying would represent 'a huge shift in the relationship between the individual and the State'. The Tory MP said: 'It's about the power over life and death. Not just over ourselves, because we already have the power to end our own lives, it's called suicide. It is not a crime – it hasn't been a crime in this country for decades. 'This is a different power. This is about the power of the State through its agents to exercise power over life and death. 'Yes, agreed; yes, approved of in advance; but when the State takes a life, even with consent, that is a huge shift in the relationship between the individual and the State.' But one of the Bill's leading backers, Tory MP Kit Malthouse, wanted to give a voice to dying people 'not because they want to be rescued, but because time and time again, they're begging us for mercy'. The former Cabinet minister added: 'We honour life by giving it meaning and power. And the one thing that dying people ask for in their agonising final moments is control over the disease that is destroying them.' Campaigners from both sides had spent the day in rival but respectful demonstrations outside the Houses of Parliament. A cheer erupted as the result was announced on a livestream. Many cried and hugged each other, while others popped champagne. Rebecca Wilcox, Dame Esther Rantzen's daughter, called her mother, who is terminally ill, in front of supporters and told her she wished she was there. Ms Wilcox said that she even gave Bill proponent Kim Leadbeater's mother a 'big hug' following the result announcement and added: 'I don't know whether to have a drink or a really big cry. It was quite extraordinary.' Meanwhile Labour MP Dr Peter Prinsley said: 'As a young doctor, I found the measures that we're debating today completely unconscionable, but now I'm an old doctor, I feel sure this is an essential change.' He added: 'There is an absolute sanctity of human life, but we are not dealing with life or death, rather death or death. For there is also a sanctity of human dignity and fundamental to that is surely choice. Who are we to deny that?'
