MORE than 400 Southampton hospital workers have been told their jobs are at risk in a shock meeting with bosses, the Daily Echo can reveal.

One in four of the posts will be axed by December this year and others could be made to reapply for new-positions elsewhere within the Trust, they were told by hospital chiefs yesterday.

The devastating blow came yesterday afternoon when more than 400 staff working in booking and administration services at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust were called to a meeting with chief executive Mark Hackett.

They were told that all 433 employees are at risk of redundancy as the trust tries to simplify its appointment booking service as part of its £100m cost-cutting drive over the next five years.

As revealed in the Daily Echo last year, hospital chiefs will be forced to cut up to 1,400 jobs as they battle to save cash and this will be the first wave of job cuts to hit staff.

Health chiefs say the action is vital in the face of rising costs and a freeze in its £500m annual funding The posts will go after a three-month consultation with staff, launched yesterday, in which the trust is proposing a set of changes to the booking process for all hospital appointments.

The aim is to provide patients with a simple, centralised and more cost-effective system, to replace the current “unreliable” and “inconsistent” process which bosses say has been causing unnecessary frustration for patients.

As a result of the changes a little over 100 jobs, a quarter of the admin workforce, are expected to go but Mr Hackett told staff that he hopes compulsory redundancies will be kept to a minimum, through voluntary redundancies and redeployment.

Mr Hackett said: “Over the last ten years our clinical services have gone through some big changes so that patients can get treated more quickly than ever before, but the customer service patients get when they need to book an appointment is not good enough at the moment.

“We are currently employing more admin, clerical and management staff to deal with a complicated appointment system when a better system would need less staff to run it – and would improve the experience of our patients.

“Our consultation with staff will last for three months and we need to work closely with them to develop our proposals in order to make this project a success.

“We anticipate that we would reduce the workforce by just over 100 posts as part of the changes. However, we have a strong track record of keeping compulsory redundancies to an absolute minimum by redeploying staff and carefully managing the filling of vacancies.”

The announcement has been met with shock and worry by Unison members, at a time when employment opportunities in the city are severely limited.

Steve Brazier, regional head of health for Unison, said: “Unison will be working with its members to support them at this difficult time and seeking urgent discussions with the Trust to fully understand their justification for the cuts and restructure.

“While efficiencies are always sought the scale of the proposals are of concern and the union and staff need to be convinced that they are necessary and not just to meet the Government’s imposed cuts to NHS funding, which are taking £28 million from the Southampton University Hospitals Trust budget alone this year.”