At least 50 frontline jobs are being cut from Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) as the full extent of the crisis in community care is revealed.
Figures obtained by the Paisley Daily Express show the local body responsible for delivering care at home will cut 48 roles from an already over stretched workforce over the next two years.
It will see 29 full-time equivalent posts axed across health and social care, meaning a reduction in nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and podiatrists in the community. A further 19 full-time equivalent jobs will be axed from the care at home service.
The cull, which is mostly of vacant positions, is part of £3.45 million of efficiency savings approved by health chiefs earlier this year.
But the HSCP still has an £8m hole in its finances and cannot promise more frontline roles will not be cut as part of another review into its budget, to be concluded this autumn.
The PDE revealed on Friday how talk of an £8m black hole at the Renfrewshire Integration Joint Board had rang “alarm bells” for local councillors. The partnership revealed then that the review needed to claw back a further £8m on top of the previously identified £3.45m.
But Unison, which represents health and social care workers across Renfrewshire, said more staff were needed in the health and social care not less.
A spokesperson for Unison said: “This is absolutely the wrong time to be talking about cuts to the health service. Everyone in the NHS is under severe pressure, staff are already on their knees.
“They can’t get people into hospital for their operations because they can’t get them out at the other side and that’s because they do not have enough carers, podiatrists, physiotherapists, nurses and occupational therapists.
“These are the posts in the community that are being cut. That’s happening at a time when staff morale and health is at its lowest.
“They are already working short staffed and, even if these cuts are to be vacant posts, what that says to the staff is you are going to have to continue to work under the pressure that you have been working under for the past four years.
“It’s simply not sustainable.”
The news comes eight months after Renfrewshire HSCP said it desperately needed more staff in order to meet the demand for care at home and to tackle the rising number of delayed discharges from the Royal Alexandra Hospital.
In October last year, when delayed discharges had reached crisis point across Scotland, the partnership said it was actively recruiting people to fill the gaps in service.
Yesterday a spokesperson for the HSCP said the job cuts are for roles which have been “difficult to fill” for some time while the removal of some posts was considered “low-risk”.
New technology and the regrading of some roles was also a factor.
He said: “Over the coming months, we will be embarking upon a programme of communication and engagement with related groups and individuals to inform and support the development of (savings) proposals.
“Taking these considerations into account, an updated position on costed savings will be brought to the IJB in November 2023.
“This update will also outline, for the IJB’s consideration, next steps and further work required.”
He added: “We will continue to prioritise support for our most vulnerable people, and aim to deliver our services as sustainably, safely, and effectively as we can with the resources we have available to us.”
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