39 jobs to go as NHS Direct closes centre

The NHS Direct centre near Brighton Station deals with thousands of calls a week from people with concerns about their health.

The Brighton base is one of 12 being shut across the country with the loss of about 400 jobs as the organisation tries to save £15 million.

The 39 staff in Brighton, who comprise 28 nurse advisers, eight health advisers and three team leaders, will be consulted about the plans.

Some will be offered posts at other centres while those who do not want to move will be offered advice on how to get a job within the NHS.

Unions warn this could be difficult as hundreds of jobs are being shed at hospital trusts across Sussex, including 325 at the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.

NHS Direct, set up in 1997, handles millions of calls each year on its helpline and displays advice on its website, which attracts about one million visits a month.

NHS Direct chairman David Edmonds said: "We must ensure we can deliver a service which offers excellent clinical quality for patients and value for money for our commissioners and taxpayers."

Nationally 789 posts will go, 573 through redundancies and 216 through natural turnover. However, the expansion of some other call centres would create 376 new posts.

Unison's head of health Karen Jennings said the job losses were a crushing blow to staff.

She said: "These cuts are very short-sighted. Staff can take up to 25,000 calls a day and cutting the service will put immediate pressure on GP surgeries and accident and emergency departments, particularly at night, weekends and Bank Holidays.

She said the cuts could be "the tip of the iceberg" and feared more call centre jobs could be moved overseas. An NHS Direct spokeswoman said: "We accept this is a difficult time for staff but want to assure people that services will not be affected.

"The system is nationally linked. Someone in Brighton calling NHS Direct would not necessarily speak to the call centre in Brighton."