Hospital trust has to save £55m

The new hospital is due to open in 2009

The trust which runs Derby's hospitals has announced it must make cuts of £55m over the next three years.

It comes as a new hospital is being built for the city, with £334m of private finance being invested in it.

Management consultants will now advise the trust on how to save money and officials have admitted the 7,500 staff affected are bound to be nervous.

But hospital officials insist it will be change which guarantees the best possible patient care.

Derby's new hospital is due to open in 2009, replacing the existing Derby City General and Derbyshire Royal Infirmary.

'Minimise redundancies'

Chief executive Julie Acred said: "When we move into that new hospital in 2009 it will in fact offer much greater opportunity for some efficiency. We won't be operating two of everything as we are now.

"It's really next year that is our greatest challenge, with the new hospital opening, but still running services on two sites."

She added: "We are a service where we spend two thirds of our budget on staff and inevitably they will be concerned about what it will mean for them.

"We've been working very closely with the unions... We've long held the view that we should minimise redundancies as far as possible and that we should use natural turnover to try and secure change."