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Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
Kingston Hospital staff cuts - Lib Dem councillors demand answers
April 2, 2011 7:33 PM
• [Mar 18]: LIBERAL Democrat members of Richmond Council's Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee have demanded that managers of Kingston Hospital come before councillors and the public to explain their plans for staff cuts. Kingston Hospital announced last month that it plans to cut 486 posts over the next 5 years including 22 fewer consultants, 214 fewer nurses, midwives and health visitors, 55 fewer 'scientific and therapeutic and technical staff' and 140 fewer 'non-clinical' posts.
Managers from the hospital gave a presentation to the Council's health scrutiny committee in January, just weeks before the staff cuts were announced, in which they claimed that "frontline staffing levels would not drop." Cllr Stephen Knight, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Opposition, said: "We are right to be concerned when we were told in January that there would be no cuts to frontline staffing levels at the hospital and just weeks later significant reductions are announced in the number of doctors, nurses and midwives. Local MPs may have spoken to hospital management and be satisfied that patient care will not suffer but, unlike MPs, councillors have a legal responsibility to hold local health services to account through our health scrutiny committee, which meets in public."
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