Almost 900 jobs, including 560 posts “responsible for direct patient care”, are to be cut as part of a five year cost-cutting plan announced by the London Ambulance Service.
The service is facing cuts to its £281m budget and is “introducing a range of efficiency measures to reduce costs” including axing jobs. However bosses say an annual departure rate of around 300 employees per year means “the vast majority of reductions should come from natural wastage.”
In a statement the service vowed that “compulsory redundancies will be avoided wherever possible.”
LAS Chief Executive Peter Bradley said the service was “not immune to the financial pressures facing the NHS” and had to look at “all areas of our business” for potential savings.,
Bradley added: “with nearly 80 per cent of our budget spent on staff costs it would be impossible to make the savings required without removing posts.
“We are confident that the large majority of posts can be reduced by not filling vacancies.”
The service has previously said it has seen 999 call levels increase by almost a third in recent years.
There have been calls for the service, which is operated by a standalone NHS trust, to come under the control of City Hall, making it accountable to the Mayor who already has input into the capital’s Police and Fire services.