Call for NHS Trust management to go

Nurses, unions and other medical staff of North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust have issued a statement attacking management and calling for senior officials to go.

The Board has lost the confidence of many employees in its ability to provide NHS services. Examples of ‘squandered’ money include £466 spent to replace a light fitting.

It is claimed that while frontline staff have been on a two-year pay freeze, Interim Chief Executive Dr Neil Goodwin has received a 63% pay increase to £129,000 a year for a three-day week.

The statement – issued jointly by Trust staff who are members of the Royal College of Nursing, Unison, Unite, the Royal College of Physiotherapy, the GMB, the Society of Radiographers, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists – highlights the authors’ grave concerns over the ‘ongoing cuts and restructuring programmes’ currently being implemented by the Trust’s executive team and board.

It reads: "It is the professional opinion of our members that the Trust's cuts and restructuring programmes are not in the interests of patients or the public living and working in Cumbria.

“Furthermore, it is our position that the quality and safety of patient care is suffering as a direct result of mismanagement of existing resources at the trust."

In response, the Trust said patient safety was "at the centre of everything it does".