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 | | Wednesday, 6 March, 2002, 20:09 GMT Agency staff decision reversed by hospital  The hospital reversed its plan to sack all agency staff A children's hospital has reversed its decision not to use its agency staff in an effort to cut costs. The curb was imposed by Birmingham Children's Hospital after it announced last week that it was facing a budget deficit of �1.1m for the new financial year, with forecasts the shortfall could soar to �4.5m. But now the hospital says some agency staff will be reinstated after it had to cancel more than 30 operations. Dr Sandy Bradbrook, chief executive of the hospital, says in a statement that he has "reinstated some of the agency nurses withdrawn last week". Operation delayed Dr Bradbrook also says the hospital regrets "the upset and concern that" the budget cuts have caused. The concerns were highlighted by the case of five-year-old Catherine Sharpe, from Lutterworth, Leicestershire, who had a bone-marrow transplant operation delayed due to the funding crisis.
But she has since begun preparatory treatment at the hospital and the operation is expected to take place on 11 March. The hospital has stressed that no emergency treatment would be at risk. When the cuts were announced a hospital spokesman said: "The important thing is that we are confident that no emergency or priority treatment will be at risk. "Less urgent cases may be delayed but staff will contact a family's doctor if a child's routine admittance needs to be rescheduled. "If steps are not taken now, the deficit could amount to �4.5m." | |    See also: Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top England stories now:  Links to more England stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||||
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