1) Letters to Ilford and Romford Recorder 2) Guardian Article 100,00 NHS jobs at risk 3) Stakeholder letter 4 Freedom of Information request

1)  This is the letter sent to the local press

Dear Sir or Madam

We are dismayed that the Barking Havering and Redbridge University NHS Trust (BHRUT) responsible for Queens & King George Hospitals is facing a £50M cut to its 25/26 budget which will put 770 NHS jobs at risk as disclosed at the BHRUT March board meeting papers.  The source of these cuts at BHRUT appears to be national NHS guidance dated 30th January 2025 which states “Overall, this means NHS organisations will need to reduce their cost base by at least 1% and achieve 4% improvement in productivity...the NHS will need to reduce or stop spending on some services and functions” Mr Trainer said at the March board meeting about these national cuts: “this is about less for less in some instances as well. Some of the decisions that are going to have to come to this board where we can expect to access the service in a way that we think will cause the least harms and outcomes.” The BHRUT catchment area has some of the poorest wards in England and has a rapidly growing population. In contrast, over in Surrey, the richest county in England, while the budget for Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust has also been cut, the Chief Executive issues no warnings about services being reduced in their March board papers despite national guidance saying to “to stop spending on some services” There has to be a concern that these national cuts are being spread uniformly by area, without poverty and planned population increases caused by new developments being taken into account. That BHRUT is facing these cuts must be wrong and we call on Wes Streeting MP, the Secretary of State to intervene and stop the cuts to our local hospitals.  More information about the campaign and references for the information above is at the Save King George Hospital blogspot.

Bob Archer – Redbridge Trade Unions Council 

Councillor Gillian Ford - Cranham Ward

Redbridge Councillor Rosa Gomez 

Cllr Graham Williamson Havering Cabinet Lead for Development & Regeneration (HRA)

Andy Walker 

2) Guardian Article 100,00 NHS jobs at risk

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/08/hospitals-england-shed-jobs-cost-cutting-nhs is the articile

This is the key extract

"In recent days several NHS trusts have outlined plans to shed hundreds of posts each, in a bid to meet what Taylor has called “challenging” efficiency savings targets for 2025-26.

The trusts, which provide care in Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, plan to cut 798 whole-time equivalent posts, or about 7% of their combined workforce. They hope to save £39m, almost half their combined £82m savings target, the Health Service Journal reported.

Similarly, the trust that runs Bristol’s hospitals intends to shrink its workforce by 2%, in a move that could lead to more than 300 job losses.

NHS England told all 215 trusts to save 5% of their budget for this year through “cost improvement programmes” amid fears the service could overspend its budget by £6.6bn."

I am unsure at time of writing whether this is an additional cut to the one announced by NHS England in January 2025 per extract below:

2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance

In 2025/26, we are giving systems greater financial flexibility to manage constrained budgets. The government has made difficult choices to provide additional funding. While this provides effective real-terms growth in the NHS budget, it must cover final pay settlements for 2025/26, increased employer national insurance contributions, faster improvement on the elective waiting list and new treatments mandated by NICE. Overall, this means NHS organisations will need to reduce their cost base by at least 1% and achieve 4% improvement in productivity, in order to deal with demand growth. NHS England will transfer a higher proportion of funding than ever before directly to local systems and minimise ringfencing, allowing local leaders maximum flexibility to plan better and more efficient services. And, to be clear, all parts of the NHS must now live within their means. ENDS

Or the press story in the Guardian is an additional cut.

 3) BHRUT Stakeholder letter 4th April 2025 at BHRUT site

Thank you to the Councillor who sent me positive newsletter from Mr Trainer to stakeholders. It strikes a different tone to the March 2025 BHRUT board papers, but when read carefully does not contradict the board papers. This appears key extract to me

As I mentioned, the money is extremely difficult – we are anticipating having to make around £60m of savings, around £5m a month which is double the amount we’ve had to save in the previous two years. 

We’re focusing on reducing the £90m bill we face for bank and agency staff and reducing our non-staff costs (drugs, medical equipment etc). 

We know we need to make some difficult decisions over the weeks and months ahead, and there are challenges around urgent and emergency care, and waiting lists for planned treatment. Despite these challenges, however, I’m pleased to finish on the positive note that we expect to meet the latest performance targets set out by NHS England in this year’s planning guidance. 

 4 Freedom of Information request

I am seeking the formula used by NHS England to distribute cuts across England, partilcualry for BHRUT as against Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust. Trump has a formula for his tariffs, so I expect the NHS will have a formula to distribute cuts to make sure they are fairly distributed.

It is best to have no cuts, but if they take place it is vital that BHRUT is not discriminated against because of its poor areas and growing population. 

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/formula_for_nhs_cuts#incoming-2979840

Dear NHS England,

The Guardian reported on the 8th April 2025 the following:

"Hospitals in England could axe more than 100,000 jobs as a result of the huge reorganisation and brutal cost-cutting ordered by Wes Streeting and the NHS’s new boss.

The scale of looming job losses is so large that NHS leaders have urged the Treasury to cover the costs involved, which they say could top £2bn, because they do not have the money.

Sir Jim Mackey, NHS England’s new chief executive, has told the 215 trusts that provide health care across England to cut the costs of their corporate functions – such as HR, finance and communications – by 50% by the end of the year." ENDs Quote

I seek under the environmental regulations or freedom of information law the following:

1 - The formula used by NHS England to allocate the cuts across the 215 trusts.

2 - How this formula is calculated at Barking Havering & Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust

3 - How this formula is calculated at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust

On 30th January 2025 the NHS England site announced "2025/26 priorities and operational planning guidance"

I quote:

"Overall, this means NHS organisations will need to reduce their cost base by at least 1% and achieve 4% improvement in productivity, in order to deal with demand growth. NHS England will transfer a higher proportion of funding than ever before directly to local systems and minimise ringfencing, allowing local leaders maximum flexibility to plan better and more efficient services. And, to be clear, all parts of the NHS must now live within their means."

I seek under the environmental regulations or freedom of information law the following:

4 The formula used by NHS England to allocate the cuts across the 215 trusts to "reduce their cost base by at least 1% and achieve 4% improvement in productivity"

5- How this formula is calculated at Barking Havering & Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust

6 - How this formula is calculated at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust

7- The Equality Impact Assessments for both the cuts order by Sir Jim Mackey at points 1-3 and the cuts to reduce "their cost base by at least 1% and achieve 4% improvement in productivity" per points 4 - 6

Yours faithfully,

Andy Walker

Report from outside Wes Streeting's office: no to the £50M cuts

 

Many thanks to everyone attending.

The source of the cuts appears to be NHS England per the statement below taken from https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/2025-26-priorities-and-operational-planning-guidance/

I cut and paste key extracts from the  third and final paragraph is bolded and underlined.

NHS productivity also continues to improve, enabling us to deliver more care for patients. Over 2023/24, NHS providers delivered around 5% more activity year-on-year, for 0.12% more income. In the first 7 months of this year the acute sector improved productivity by over 2% – double the improvement rate pre-pandemic. The NHS is on track this year to surpass the £7 billion of efficiencies delivered in 2023/24 – achieved through innovation and reform, continuous improvement, investment in technology, data and new capacity, and better workforce retention. These steps provide the springboard for us to reimagine services as part of the 10 Year Health Plan.

But the timeliness and experience of care is still not good enough. While more people are completing treatment in A&E within 4 hours, a growing number are facing waits of 12 hours or more. In elective care – and in primary, community and mental health services – despite record activity, continued high demand means improvements are not yet nearly enough to allow everyone to access services in a timely or convenient way. And this impacts staff when they can’t provide the quality and experience of care they, and their patients, want.

In 2025/26, we are giving systems greater financial flexibility to manage constrained budgets. The government has made difficult choices to provide additional funding. While this provides effective real-terms growth in the NHS budget, it must cover final pay settlements for 2025/26, increased employer national insurance contributions, faster improvement on the elective waiting list and new treatments mandated by NICE. Overall, this means NHS organisations will need to reduce their cost base by at least 1% and achieve 4% improvement in productivity, in order to deal with demand growth. NHS England will transfer a higher proportion of funding than ever before directly to local systems and minimise ringfencing, allowing local leaders maximum flexibility to plan better and more efficient services. And, to be clear, all parts of the NHS must now live within their means.

Reflecting the Mandate from government and our evolving ways of working, we have also honed national priorities to increase local autonomy. This year’s planning guidance is more focused – setting out a small set of headline ambitions and the key enablers to support organisations to deliver them, alongside local priorities. This reflects the direction of travel towards earned autonomy for systems, with support, oversight and intervention from NHS England based on their specific needs and performance. 2025/26 is a reset moment, and it starts with the planning process – with more autonomy and flexibility comes greater responsibility and accountability.

Difficult decisions will be needed, and we must meet this collective challenge together. To balance operational priorities with the funding available, while continuing to lay foundations for future reforms, the NHS will need to reduce or stop spending on some services and functions and achieve unprecedented productivity growth in others. Open and ongoing conversations will be needed with staff, the public and stakeholders at organisation, place and system level about what it’s going to take to improve productivity, reduce waste and tackle unwarranted variation. We will back local leaders to take tough decisions, where they are clearly rooted in the needs of their populations and best use of available staff, and where all reasonable steps have been taken to maximise resources available for clinical services. Equally, we will challenge organisations who are not able to demonstrate a robust approach to prioritising patient care by bearing down on duplication and waste. 

The cuts outlined above are echoed in the March 2025 BHRUT chief executives report: Mu emphasis

Despite such recruitment – and a £9m reduction in the money spent on agency staff when compared with last year – our financial position remains very difficult. Our deficit in January was £5m worse than we had forecast, due to a reduction in the income we received, a rise in our wage bill and an increase in the money we spent on clinical supplies and drugs. As well as getting a better understanding of why our financial performance deteriorated in a way that we hadn’t anticipated, we also need to deliver at least £50m of savings in the next financial year. Doing even more with less is not a viable option. So, like many other trusts, we will have to reduce what we do to ensure we live within our means. The challenge will be to achieve this in a way that minimises, as best we can, any adverse impact on our residents.

This Mr Trainer reporting on the impact of the £50M cuts below:

The worst case is 770 jobs to go per this extract from the board papers and hence the banner:

Canvassing Redbridge & Havering Councillors to support the campaign against the £50M BHRUT budget cut

 I sent this yesterday

Dear Councillors in Redbridge & Havering

 

Per my earlier email, a substantial contraction of our NHS is planned with a £50M budget cut taking place for the next financial year for King George and Queens Hospitals. This means 770 jobs to go from a staff of 8,000. Mr Trainer, the Chief Executive for King George & Queens made this announcement at the March Barking Havering & Redbridge University Trust board meeting. 

I was outside Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey at my Facebook andywalker19 and twitter andywalker1945 yesterday reporting that that this hospital is not facing cuts. Surrey is the richest county in England, whereas Redbridge has some of the poorest wards in London. This unequal treatment of the hospitals in East London and Surrey cannot be right and it would be great if you could make the photoshoot tomorrow. The campaign against the cuts is a cross party one, with Conservative, Green, Independent, Liberal Democrat & TUSC support. 

 

A report from the photoshoot last week is at the save King George Hospital Blog. It was much appreciated to have the support of Cllr Begum and Keith Prince AM. If you cannot make the photoshoot tomorrow at Wes Streeting's office on Woodford Avenue at 7pm, but if you would to add your name to a letter to the local press please contact me. 

 

First draft of letter is:

 

Dear Letters Editor (Ilford & Romford Recorders)

We are dismayed that the Barking Havering & Redbridge University Trust (BHRUT) responsible for Queens & King George Hospitals is facing a £50M cut to its 25/26 budget which will put 770 NHS jobs at risk as disclosed at their March board meeting. It is particularly concerning that Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey, the wealthiest county in England is facing no cuts per its March Board papers. However, the BHRUT catchment area has some of the poorest wards in England. That BHRUT is being singled out for these cuts must be wrong and we call on Wes Streeting MP, the Secretary of state to intervene and stop the cuts to our local hospitals.

ENDS LETTER

 

Any Councillors and campaign supporters

 

For information in letter above: Google frimley health nhs foundation trust board meetings, to find March 7th 2025 board papers and Google BHRUT board papers, to find March 6th board papers 

 

The Chief Executive report responsible for Frimley hospital mentions no cuts, neither are cuts mentioned elsewhere in the papers. The £50M cut is mentioned in the BHRUT board papers under the Chief Executive report. I have copied in both Frimley and BHRUT communications teams should they wish to comment. 

 

Please let me know by Monday 7th April by 9am if you would like to add your name to the letter for the local press which will hopefully allow you time to check my research. 

 

Regards

 

Andy Walker 

Photo from today outside King George: No to the £50M cut to our King George And Queens

 Thank you  to Councillor Begum, Imran Ahmed, Andy Walker, Keith Prince AM, RoseMary of the Green Party attending earlier today. 

savekinggeorgehospital.blogspot.com c/o

120 Blythswood Road

Ilford

Essex

IG3 8SG

07956 263088 email: andy.walker@talk21.com

Mr Matthew Trainer

Chief Executive

BHRUT 28.3.25

Dear Mr Trainer

£50M budget cut

The save King George Hospital team are a community group campaigning for a better deal for our local NHS.

We are alarmed at the £50M budget cut planned for the BHRUT budget reported at your March board meeting.

If the threat of the cut has been lifted please could you let us know at your earliest convenience by means of a press release on your website and emailing Andy at the email above.

Regards

Councillor Begum, Imran Ahmed, Andy Walker,  RoseMary Warrington 

My appeal to Cllr Morgan to help King George & Queens Hospitals

 

i

I say:

Good Evening Cllr Morgan

King George & Queens Hospital face a £50M cut to their funding and a loss of 770 jobs per my email sent to you earlier today.

I am a resident of Redbridge so your team may not have forwarded my email of earlier about the cuts to you.

I am contacting you because Cllr Santos, the Redbridge Council member for health will not write to Wes Streeting MP asking him to stop the cuts.

If both yourself and Cllr Rai do not make public representations to Wes Streeting then the campaign to stop these damaging cuts will be on the back foot.

Anything you can do will be much appreciated. ENDs video message

I wrote the following to all Havering Councillors earlier today;

Dear Councillors

 

At the 6th March BHRUT board meeting, Matthew Trainer, the  BHRUT Chief  Executive provided written and verbal reports about the damage the proposed £50M cut to the BHRUT budget would mean to the care provided at Queens and King George Hospitals. In short rather than improving care BHRUT would be managing declining care to do the least harm to patients.

 

I asked Cllr Rai, the Leader of Redbridge Council at the 20th March Redbridge Council meeting to write to Wes Streeting MP to help our hospitals. Cllr Rai delegated his reply to Cllr Santos, the cabinet member for health.

 

Cllr Santos give a detailed reply to my question, outlining his enthusiasm and commitment to the NHS. However, he said now was not the time to write to Wes, but left the option of writing to Wes at a later date.

 

Some you might remember me as part of team that campaigned to keep open King George A&E. At the time many people told me the closure was a done deal, and the A&E would close. Despite the odds being against us, the campaign was won. Today we face a similar situation. Wes Streeting MP appears committed to the £50M cut, nonetheless, if enough of us kick up a fuss the cut can be stopped. 

 

Extracts from the key BHRUT board papers and a video clip of Mr Trainer explaining the damage the cuts will do are at my twitter andywalker and facebook andywalker19. 

 

Should you be sympathetic to stopping the £50M cut I am canvassing for a photo shoot outside Queens this 29th Saturday 10:30am to deliver a letter of support, perhaps you could let me know if you could make it. 

 

If Wes Streeting still persists with the cut then perhaps we should go to his office to hand in a letter to request he reverses the cut on Friday 4th April at 6pm. 

 

Please don't hesitate to contact me on the number below should you have any questions. 

 

 

Regards

 

Andy Walker - 

07956 263088120 Blythswood Road IG3 8SG

I say at video above

"Thank you to Cllr Rai for agreeing to my appeal on X to allow my question to him on Thursday 20^th meeting at Redbridge Town Hall asking him to write to Wes Streeting to stop the 770 NHS jobs to be cut from King George & Queens hospitals.

5 years ago some NHS workers died saving us from covid. We stood at our doors and clapped them for their bravery.

It is incomprehensible to me that Wes is treating our local NHS staff so badly now that they have to worry about losing their jobs when other hospitals appear to be getting more staff.

I will be outside Redbridge Town Hall with a banner at 6.45pm on 20^th March saying no to these dreadful cuts, it would be much appreciated if you could join me and then come into the chamber to hear what Cllr Rai has to say."

I also wrote to the Mayor this morning to say.

Dear Mayor Bain

 

My question has been ruled out of order for full council on the 20th March, due to it being out of time with the new deadline which was last Thursday. Last night at scrutiny, Liz Martins question was ruled out of order by officers, but allowed by the Chair. I request you follow the example of the chair from last night and let me speak on Thursday. My question regards the £50M budget cut for King George & Queens Hospitals. If Wes Streeting does not step in to stop the cut, 770 NHS jobs are set to go. Matthew Trainer, the CE of BHRUT in both his written and verbal report to the BHRUT board makes it clear that care will deteriorate if the cuts are allowed to stand. My twitter account has extracts from both. 

 

Bearing in mind that Matthew reported that February 2025 was the busiest ever month for King George & Queens A&E departments, I say it must be a concern that if cuts  are allowed to stand, to use the NHS jargon "excess deaths" will rise. My question that I am requesting you allow is: 1- Will the Leader write to Wes Streeting MP asking him to stop the £50M cut to the 25/26 BHRUT budget which if not stopped will cause the loss of 770 NHS jobs at King George & Queens Hospitals.

 

Regards

 

Andy

And got this reply later this afternoon

Dear Mr Walker

 

We have reconsidered your request to ask a question at Full Council and have noted that our website was not updated following the Constitutional change to public participation rules at Full Council in January, as such the Council is allowing your first question below as follows:

1- Will the Leader write to Wes Streeting MP asking him to stop the £50M cut to the 25/26 BHRUT budget which if not stopped will cause the loss of 770 NHS jobs at King George & Queens Hospitals.

Stop the 770 NHS job cuts at King George and Queens

 

The good news is that the banner for the stop the 770 job NHS cuts at King George and Queens Hospitals is due to be delivered for the Redbridge Council meeting on the 20^th March

The bad news is that my question for the 20^th March meeting asking for Councillor Rai to help out the campaign to stop the job cuts has been blocked by Redbridge Labour's new restrictive standing orders. 7 days notice of a question is now required. The deadline previously was four days.

However, standing orders can be suspended if the Leader thinks the issue is important enough. So I am appealing to Cllr Rai to allow my question. The local community came together when King George A&E was under threat and we won, I believe if we kick up enough fuss, Wes will step in and do the right thing and stop these unnecessary nasty cuts.

Should these NHS job cuts go through, then the sick, the frail and the elderly will suffer and to use the NHS jargon “excess deaths” seem bound to rise.

So Kam, please help out with the campaign and allow my question and even better issue a statement to ask Wes Streeting to intervene to stop the job cuts at King George and Queens Hospital.