Basingstoke hospital has confirmed it will be forced to make £10million worth of cuts after a massive shortfall in funding from government.
Healthcare bosses claim the hospital, in Aldermaston Road, will have to undergo a service redesign in order to save money but it should not lead the wide-scale redundancies. Hampshire Primary Care Trust is embroiled in a funding crisis and NHS foundation trusts are seeing their grants slashed as a result.
Donna Green, chief operating officer and nursing director, told the Observer: “Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS Foundation Trust is being impacted by the recession and is currently working towards a £10million savings program. We do not have immediate plans to reduce any clinical services or the number of beds.
“We are working closely with the PCT in terms of service redesign, to find other ways of providing services to the local community. We do not anticipate any large scale redundancies but we are reviewing posts and are expecting staff levels to be reduced through natural wastage.”
Maria Miller, prospective parliamentary candidate for Basingstoke, believes the town’s hospital should receive more cash due to ambitious house building targets.
She said: “The hospital as a whole is facing massive cuts because Hampshire does not get its fair share of health funding from this Labour government. This has to change to give Basingstoke residents a fairer deal.
“The growing health needs of Hampshire’s older population is not taken fully into account when funding is allocated and this is pushing local health budgets to breaking point. Hampshire’s PCT is in financial crisis again and it is local services that suffer.
“The situation is compounding he problem in Basingstoke because the government is demanding 1000 houses are built every year, increasing pressure on the hospital and other local health services.
“Yet at the same time our local hospital has to cut services by £10million. House building has to go hand in hand with the money to expand services to meet the need of new residents.”
