AS MANY as 80 jobs could be axed at Stepping Hill Hospital in the wake of a £5 million deficit.
The jobs under threat are said to be administration and managerial positions, as hospital chiefs try to counter the overspending.
Investigators are trying to discover the cause of the debt at the hospital which is run by the Stockport NHS Foundation Trust - one of the government's flagship trusts.
The trust has been overtaken by financial problems only 17 months after becoming one of the first to achieve foundation status, which allows it to be self-governing and, in part, to opt out of the NHS system, increasing its financial borrowing capacity.
The trust's chief executive, Dr Chris Burke, said costly new drugs, overspending medical locums, insufficient funding allocations to meet a national pay award and failing to get through its workload, has caused the problems.
He added: "This is a prudent look at our financial position over the next three years and we need to act now to safeguard clinical services over that timescale. Doctors, nurses and clinical staff are not included in the possible cuts.
"This is a measured approach. We are looking at stemming the overspend with a cost-reduction programme related to the structures of the organisation. There will be an initial assessment and then work towards the new process and job reductions which will be put in place by March 2007."
Unison official Chris Parks said: "I'm absolutely appalled the potential number of job losses has been mentioned when we haven't started consultations.
"These savings could have been made a long time ago. We are trying to make the place as efficient as we can to co-operate with the trust."
The news comes as work on a £25million cardiac and surgical unit is taking place. Construction of a £2million single-deck car park in the grounds has been completed.
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Stepping Hill Employee, Stockport (09/09/2005 at 15:53)
Why are senior medical staff not being challenged about their under utilised outpatient clinics? The book stops at the top, so why are Trust Director's not being held to account instead on low level managers and clerical staff. Is interesting that we are cutting jobs, yet we now appoint a brand new post for Head of Finance at B#60k a post that we have never had before. In Finance we now have a Director, Deputy Director, three Asst Director and a brand new position - Head of Finance.Instead of looking for job loses at lower levels perhaps we should be lokking to get rid of a number of the Assistant Director and Asst Divsional Managers posts.