The Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead

A HOSPITAL has called on its own staff to quit by the end of the week after managers were forced into a “rapid acceleration” of cuts.

Royal Free London, the NHS trust which runs the hospital in Pond Street, Hampstead, said the “mutually-agreed resignations” were required after it was hit by new eye-watering financial targets from central government.

The severance packages are part of a series of measures that could lead to more than 1,000 staff posts being lost across the trust.

It comes with campaigners calling on the Labour government to properly fund the NHS. Chancellor Rachel Reeves yesterday (Wednesday) rebuffed pleas for an emergency injection of £1billion her budget announcements.

And the British Medical Association has called junior doctors out on a five- day strike from Friday with the union warning that thousands of trained doctors are out of work despite the health service already reaching breaking point.

“It makes no sense that despite the need to bring down waiting lists and increase capacity for patients to be seen, thousands of willing and skilled doctors are unable to find the work to begin treating them,” said Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the BMA’s resident doctors committee.

The New Journal has been sent emails sent from the hospital’s Royal Free “People Team” to staff that said the trust is implementing “stricter recruitment controls” and “restrictions on the use of bank and agency staff”, adding: “While these have begun to have a positive impact on our financial position, they won’t be enough to hit our challenging financial targets, so the trust has decided to introduce this scheme.

“A mutually agreed resignation (MAR) is not compulsory or voluntary redundancy (and must not be used in cases where roles are genuinely redundant) and is by mutual consent, not termination by the employer.”

A report to the most recent meeting of the Royal Free board reveals how the trust has launched a “rapid acceleration” of its “financial improvement plan” following a shake up on NHS funding streams in September.

The trust has been told it will face significant cuts funding if it does not hit its “£121.5m efficiency target” for the year ending in April.

It is being punished for failing to meet targets on cancer patients “referral to treatment” times and waiting times in its A&E. The trust has been ranked 109 out or 121 when it comes to 62 waits for cancer treatment – one of the lowest-scoring in the country.

Finance chiefs at the hospital say there is a plan to axe 604 staff across the trust’s three hospitals by the end of March.

A further 585 staff are also expected to follow, the report to board in October said. The hospital’s maternity and neonatal service is being shuttered following a decision earlier this year.

And insiders at the hospital said this week staff had been told that the Pond Street hospital’s renal and kidney ward, 5 East B, would be closing next spring.

Meanwhile, sources in the A&E told the New Journal this week they feel like they are working in a “war zone”, adding: “At one point there was about 50 patients waiting to be admitted.

That meant that the hospital were desperately trying to get the doctors to discharge 50 patients from the wards.

“There were patients waiting a couple of days in corridors, or soulless bays waiting to get admitted. “One gigantic gridlock.”

The New Journal understands the Royal Free London has recently inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The trust, which also manages Barnet and North Middlesex hospitals, has been rated as “requires improvement” since 2018.

A Royal Free London spokesperson said: “The mutually agreed resignation scheme, which is consistent with NHS England guidance, allows staff, in agreement with the trust, to leave in return for a severance payment.

“All staff are welcome to apply, and will only be eligible for the scheme if a number of criteria are met.

“The trust’s rigorous approval process will ensure patient care remains unaffected.”