 Derriford Hospital is facing making �25m of cuts |
Two wards at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth are to close, hospital staff have been told. Lyd Ward deals with ear nose and throat (ENT) cases. Bracken Ward is used for the elderly. There are to be no redundancies from these closures.
The news follows an announcement this week that 400 posts are being lost, instead of an initial 200, and up to 100 compulsory redundancies are likely.
The trust says it needs to make savings of about �25m to balance its books.
'Sufficient posts'
Two other wards - Mayflower, a neurological ward which only opened last year and Lynher Ward, for plastic surgery cases - may change the specialist patients they see. Another ward, Fal, is also being moved.
In a letter being sent to staff, Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust said: "We believe we have sufficient posts for any staff affected by these changes.
"While staff may be moved from the wards they are currently working on, there are no plans at present to make anyone redundant as a result of this."
Derriford, which is the biggest hospital in the South West, had been planning to cut 50 beds.
Hospital managers said that more day cases meant fewer patients needed to stay in overnight.
Derriford Hospital had announced in March it would be axing 200 posts. On Thursday, it said this figure would double to 400 jobs.
The hospitals trust said the hospital had already stopped using agency nurses which had saved �4.6m.
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