British life-style: The health care system is falling into disrepair. Hospitals in England could shed 100,000 jobs in response to cost-cutting orders

Hospitals in England could axe more than 100,000 jobs as a result of the huge reorganisation and brutal cost-cutting ordered by Wes Streeting and the NHS’s new boss, ‘The Guardian’ reports.

The scale of looming job losses is so large that NHS leaders have urged the Treasury to cover the costs involved, which they say could top £2bn, because they do not have the money.

Sir Jim Mackey, NHS England’s new chief executive, has told the 215 trusts that provide health care across England to cut the costs of their corporate functions – such as HR, finance and communications – by 50% by the end of the year.

But the NHS Confederation, which represents trusts, said some trusts believe complying with that edict could force them to shed anywhere between 3% and 11% of their entire workforce.

If replicated across the 215 trusts, that could lead to job losses ranging from 41,100 to 150,700, given they employ 1.37 million people.

Matthew Taylor, the NHS Confederation’s chief executive, said trusts were being asked to make such “staggering” savings that they might not be able to help banish the long delays patients faced for treatment.

He called on the Treasury to create an NHS “national redundancy fund” to foot the bill for job losses because trusts were already too cash-strapped to do so.

About half of NHS England’s 15,300-strong personnel are set to lose their jobs when it is merged with the Department of Health and Social Care. The DHSC is also expecting some of its 3,300 staff to depart. A further 12,500 jobs could go at the NHS’s 42 integrated care boards – regional oversight bodies that employ 25,000 people between them.

Taylor said: “Health leaders understand the troubling financial situation facing the country and the need to improve efficiency where they can, as they have already demonstrated by significantly reducing their planned deficit for the year ahead.

“However, the scale and pace of what has been asked of them to downsize is staggering and leaves them fearful of being able to find the right balance between improving performance and implementing the reforms needed to put the NHS on a sustainable footing.

“They have told us that unless the Treasury creates a national redundancy fund to cover these job losses, any savings the government hopes to make risks being eroded at best and completely wiped out at worst.”

He said trusts needed financial stability in order to deliver the government’s forthcoming 10-year health plan.