Women's NHS trust cutting 95 jobs

The hospital needs to make £1.5m savings

Another 95 NHS jobs are to be lost as a West Midlands health trust tries to make savings of £1.5m before its next budget in March 2007.

Julie Burgess, chief executive of Birmingham Women's Health Care NHS Trust, said she could not rule out compulsory redundancies.

The jobs are to go at Birmingham Women's Hospital in Metchley Park Road.

The announcement means the number of jobs lost in the West Midlands NHS in the last two months is at least 3,200.

Ms Burgess said the trust had ended the financial year with a small surplus but needed to find savings to avoid a deficit in March.

The shortfall could only be met by reducing workforce numbers, she said.

"It is expected that approximately 95 posts will be disestablished in the forthcoming programme.

"It is important to point out that these reductions will be achieved through a number of initiatives including the offer of reduced hours, taking vacant posts out of the system, expected retirements, natural turnover and the introduction of new ways of working practices," she said.

She added there may also be redundancies but would work hard to keep the numbers to a minimum.