THE hospital where the NHS was born has been forced to borrow £3m from the Department of Health to pay this month's staff wages.

A financial crisis has also forced bosses at Trafford General to close two of its seven operating theatres.

And 210 jobs are being axed - if possible through a mixture of voluntary redundancies and vacancies not being filled.

But bosses say they cannot rule out compulsory redundancies as they battle a predicted debt of £7m.

A new team of managers has been brought in to oversee a jobs freeze and look at each ward to see what positions can be axed.

Hospital chiefs insist the tough measures are the only way to avoid going into the red and claim the changes will improve services for patients.

But unions say the hospital's future is now in doubt and claim years of mismanagement is to blame as well as the government's attempt to run the health service as a business.

They also criticised bosses for spending £95,000 employing a team of eight people from accountants Grant Thornton to help sort out their problems.

Trafford General was the first NHS hospital to open 60 years ago. Aneurin Bevan, the health minister and architect of the NHS, visited the hospital on July 5, 1948, to symbolically receive its keys, describing the birth of the NHS as a "milestone in history - the most civilised step any country had ever taken".

Martin Flanagan regional officer for Unison said: "As far as we are concerned the hospital and services are short staffed, to say the situation will improve by cutting frontline staff is ridiculous.

"This trust has been mismanaged for many years and they are now paying the price for the Government creating an internal market in the NHS, there is now a possibility it will not survive as a district general hospital for the local community, or that some services will go to other sites.

"We will be pushing trust managers to guarantee there will be no compulsory job losses."

Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust was put into turnaround - financial special measures - this time last year because of a historic £3m debt. Steve Spoerry was recruited to resolve the problem and is now the trust's interim chief executive. He revealed the borrowing of the £3m on his website blog.

While hospital bosses expected to balance the books this April, they have had cash flow problems which mean they would not have been able to pay staff without a £3m loan from Department of Health to pay staff and creditors.

They also say they are facing a £7m debt by the end of March 2009 because the trust costs more to run than it gets in income. But they believe the cost savings they are putting in place now will avoid this.

After Mr Spoerry was made chief executive, Paul Earp a second "turnaround" boss was brought in on a short term contract. He will now be replaced by Steve Benger, a third turnaround director is due to start soon to oversee the massive efficiency drive. The management shake up also includes a new director of nursing and operations and a new HR boss.

The trust is bringing in cash by renting three wards to other local hospitals and they hope to rent out operating theatres too. They say there are currently 70 unfilled jobs which will count towards the total loss of positions.

Mr Spoerry said: "The Trust has had cash problems over the last few years that if left would build up into major financial problems this year. We cannot allow this to happen and are taking responsible steps to avoid a major cash deficit.

"Our challenge in 2008 is to improve the care we provide for the people of Trafford whilst also achieving a financial surplus. We will continue to deliver the highest standards of healthcare but in the most efficient ways possible in order to meet our obligations to taxpayers."

Trust chair Fay Selvan said: "The trust is becoming more efficient, NHS finances have changed radically over the last few years and we have to save £5-6m just to stand still. We have been benchmarking ourselves against other trusts and we know where we can become more efficient we know if they can do it so can we.

"District General Hospitals have faced major changes over the last five years and we have to respond to that, we have to develop efficiencies to be viable and we have three strands to our plan in order to do that."

A trust spokesman said Grant Thornton had carried out 55 consultancy days work and brought an "objective and external" view to the savings plan.

Judie Collins, from Trafford Patient and Public Involvement Forum, "In the three years we have done this we here the same story over and over again. We hear all these promises but things don't seem to be getting any better. We need a permanent chief executive to take charge and take responsibility on a permanent basis.

"Trafford General needs to find a role if they are going to survive, I think part of the reason they are surviving at the moment is because of the 60th anniversary - it would be too embarrassing for them to go under."

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