Hospital jobs in Leeds to be axed

About 400 jobs are to go at hospitals in Leeds over the next five months, the city's health trust has said.

The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust said the posts were being axed because it had to address a predicted £7m shortfall in income.

A spokesman said the average monthly number of workers leaving the trust meant compulsory redundancies would not be necessary.

A total of 277 posts have already gone at the trust, since April 2009.

The decision to shed further jobs came after a board meeting at the beginning of November.

The trust currently employs about 14,500 staff.

Finance director Neil Chapman said: "At the November Trust Board it was made clear the activity being carried out by the trust, and thus the income we receive, was less than we planned in the first half of the financial year, and more robust action was needed to control expenditure.

"We expect the level of employed staff in the trust to fall by another 400 over the next five months."

He said although the workforce was being reduced, the trust would continue to recruit workers for "vital" posts, such as intensive care staff.