AROUND 750 jobs are set to disappear in Dorset if England’s first-ever merger of two NHS hospital foundation trusts goes ahead as planned next year.

The bosses of Poole Hospital and the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals have revealed that their combined 7,500 workforce is likely to shrink by 10 per cent between 2013 and 2017.

But Tony Spotswood, chief executive of RBCH, pledged: “The vast majority will be through natural turnover. Where it isn’t, we will look at other methods, at the same time continuing to provide safe, high quality clinical services.”

The boards of both trusts are backing the merger, but it has to be green-lighted by independent regulator Monitor. The earliest the new trust could be formed is next April.

Chris Bown, chief executive of Poole Hospital, said: “The only way we could truly exploit the benefits of collaboration is by merger.

“There is a range of benefits, not least of which is the opportunity to decrease the costs of back office functions. It would be disingenuous to say there won’t be any redundancies.”

The hospitals are not only facing up to the challenge of several more years of financial hardship, but also profound changes to the way the NHS is run.

The two trusts have a combined turnover of more than £400million a year. After merger, the new trust – which would be slightly smaller than Southampton University Hospitals Trust – would have to make £52million of savings in its first three years in addition to the £8million each trust is having to trim from its budgets this year.

On top of that, there is a push to provide more round-the-clock care through senior consultants, which has been shown to cut death rates and to provide more patient care outside of acute hospitals.

Poole neonatal care upgrade

Both hospital chiefs are keen to see Poole’s neonatal intensive care unit upgraded so the sickest babies no longer have to go to Southampton.

They also want to introduce spinal surgery; strengthen cancer services, so that fewer patients have to travel to Bristol and London and increase the capacity at Poole’s maternity hospital.

The two hospitals already work closely together in trauma and orthopaedics, and both want both to continue treating emergency medical patients and providing chemotherapy.

“We have talked to the primary care trusts and local GPs and have had some very strong support for the two organisations working together to achieve merger. GPs see it as a natural direction of travel and understand the benefits that will be offered to patients,” said Mr Spotswood.

Your feedback

• Watch a short film, download the consultation document and then complete the feedback questionnaire online by going to either www.rbch.nhs.uk/healthyfuture or going to www.poole.nhs.uk.

Keep up to date on Twitter at #healthdorset; Facebook/Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals.

The deadline for feedback is Wednesday, April 25. Visit communications@rbch.nhs.uk or ring 01202 704271 for more details.