Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport is to cut the equivalent of 350 full-time jobs in order to cope with financial pressures.
Stockport Lib Dems said that Stepping Hill had briefed staff that it has a £40m deficit and is losing £75 a minute.
To cope with the deficit, it is closing surgical ward B3 on 29 July with a loss of 22 beds, and a further eight trauma and orthopaedic beds are to close from October.
Cllr Laura Booth said: “This is a bolt from the blue and we are desperately worried for the staff and patients who will be affected by these cuts.”
The hospital will also cut 410 jobs (the equivalent of 350 full-time ones), sell the north east corner of the site and raise staff car parking fares.
In a statement, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust insisted it was “inviting staff to take voluntary redundancies in order to help us meet our financial challenges”, not sacking them, and that the 350 jobs include staff who are retiring and posts which are currently vacant.
It said that in the case of each voluntary redundancy “a rigorous assessment will be made to ensure that the loss of the post in question would not have a negative impact on patient safety”.
The trust also said that in the case of ward closures, it would ensure that patients receive “the highest quality of care” in wards elsewhere, and that the car parking charges were necessary “to make savings in areas which do not affect patient services”.
Article from The National Health Executive, 28 July 2016.