Staff at Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust have voted overwhelmingly for strike action over proposals to cut 33 community nurses and eight occupational therapists, while at the same time increasing the number of managers and social workers.
Two thirds of the trust's staff are members of Unison. Ninety per cent voted to walk out on January 31. But they stressed they will remain on call if there is an emergency.
Unison representative Karen Reissmann said: "We are determined to stop the devastation of mental health services and are hoping they will realise how wide the opposition is and see sense.
"Services are under so much pressure we have to send sick people home. We are afraid these cuts will mean a patient does something devastating to themselves or someone else that was preventable."
Health bosses say they are worried the strike will impact on patient care and stressed the plans for the radical overhaul are the result of a public consultation last year.
A spokesman for the trust said: "It is regrettable that Unison members have expressed this opinion given the trust is still analysing all comments from a formal consultation."
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As usual the frontline staff get it in the neck, and the managers get to keep their positions. I have been a nurse for 20 years, and in that time I have seen an explosion in management, each on around 30 - 40k per annum, shuffling papers about, and telling staff what to do, even when they haven't got a nursing or medical background. Would you let a paper shuffler tell a mechanic how to repair your car? probably not, but are willing to let a manager tell nurses and doctors that your loved one isn't worth a few quid a week for life saving drugs.