More than 300 NHS jobs are ‘at risk’ when the primary care trust responsible for Macclesfield health care is axed in 2013.
All 325 posts at Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust (CECPCT) have been put in doubt by the Government’s decision to abolish all PCTs, the Express has learnt.
CECPCT chief executive Mike Pyrah said he hoped that most employees would find jobs elsewhere in the NHS but admitted: "At the moment potentially everyone at the PCT is at risk."
The trust, which has a budget of £660million, funds pharmacies, GP and dental practices and opticians by commissioning health services across the region including Macclesfield.
Approximately half its employees are in management roles, with the rest trained medical support staff who work across the PCT.
All 152 UK PCTs are being scrapped as part of a massive NHS shake up revealed in a White Paper last week. The Government is yet to decide what will replace them.
Mr Pyrah said: "Our view is that we would hope that the vast majority of those (325) people will be able to secure employment elsewhere in the NHS."
But he admitted that the number would depend on whether NHS commissioning functions continued in Cheshire or were taken outside the region.
The trust currently needs to make £24million of ‘efficiency savings’ by next April to stay out of debt.
Managers who leave would not be replaced as the PCT seeks to cut management costs by more than a third by 2012, Mr Pyrah confirmed, adding: "At the moment we are not making people compulsorily redundant but we are seeking to reduce our numbers."
He said there was ‘no risk’ to Macclesfield Hospital, which is run by a different NHS trust, caused by the PCT being axed.
