HUNDREDS of staff at Cornwall’s hospitals – working in care, administration and corporate roles – face losing their jobs as part of a £49.3m savings plan. However, the pain may continue as NHS bosses in the Duchy have not ruled out millions of pounds of additional cuts next year.

The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust (RCHT) is currently in consultation with its staff across three sectors on the proposed jobs cuts, including around a quarter of all administrative roles. At a board meeting of the trust last week, senior staff did not deny rumours that another round of £40 million cuts could be made in 2026/27.

During public questions, the board was asked: “Are cuts planned for next year? We heard rumours of another £40 million on top of the £49 million already required this year, which was on top of £30 million already put in place.

“Do you believe that programmes of mass privatisation or the shutting down of entire wards, departments or services, or types of treatments, will be made necessary by these cuts? And do you think the trust will be able to continue to provide adequate healthcare?”

The board, which includes RCHT’s chief executive Steve Williamson, was also asked: “With unprecedented and devastating cuts being made to our hospital budgets, what conversations have we had throughout the NHS and with Government with regards to these plans?”

Ian Dean, the trust’s chief finance officer, replied without actually answering the question about the possibility of more cuts or ward closures. He said: “We have a responsibility to ensure we are providing the best care and best value for taxpayers’ money. The national ten-year plan sets a clear ambition to deliver and invest in care close to people in people’s own homes. It’s well recognised that prolonged and unnecessary stays in hospital have detrimental effects on patient outcomes.

“Our hospitals are going to need to shift as part of that to developing neighbourhood care as that evolves so we can become a provider of what should be the most specialist and complex elements of patients’ care. Changes we make will always follow our normal governance routes.”

The public also raised questions about the “consistency and fairness” of the consultation process when three parallel processes are being treated differently “particularly when all groups are equally affected”. Concern was raised about the recent decision to pause the clinical administration consultation until the new year while allowing the corporate and care group consultations to continue as planned.

RCHT’s chief operating officer Robin Jones said at the meeting on Thursday (November 6): “It’s important to note that all three of our consultations have been conducted in line with our organisational change policy, but our consultations on the care group management structure and corporate services are not linked to the clinical admin services. They’re not predicated on each other.

“From the corporate and care group perspective, we now have very well worked-up plans with consultation still ongoing until November 9 when we hope to have a final proposal considered by our union colleagues and then it will come to the board later in November.”

Following the meeting, CEO Mr Williamson – who was presented with a 5,700-signature petition calling for an end to the jobs cuts – said: “We recognise organisational change can be difficult and unsettling for staff. We want them to have rewarding roles, better career pathways and access to new technology to support their work and patient care. The petition presented to us today will be considered as part of the engagement and consultations we are running.

“We had already notified our staff the decision to pause the formal consultation on changes to clinical administration. We are continuing to hold meetings and receive feedback which will influence any future proposals.

“We also extended the consultations on our care group management structure and corporate services to allow additional time for further engagement before final proposals for change are taken forward.”