STAFF at Calderstones NHS Trust are holding a protest march against cost-cutting measures.
The trust, based near Whalley, employs 1,587 people and provdes specialist services to in- and out-patients with learning disabilities.
Workers and union chiefs will stage a two-hour rally on June 30 in protest of plans to increase working hours and reduce staff earnings, with bosses considering removing unsocial hours payments.
A member of staff who wanted to remain anonymous said a memo ordering employees to work longer shifts had been sent to all ward areas.
He said: “If staff don’t agree they say they will issue 90-day notices and change our contracts whether we like it or not.
“They are basically saying if you don’t like it there is the door. It’s an absolute joke.”
During the protest, being held on the same day as a trust board meeting, staff will march through Whalley waving ‘Calderstones Cuts Harm Patient Care’ and ‘Red Card for Health Cuts’ banners.
Union bosses blasted hospital chiefs for putting patients and staff at risk for proposing to cut 30 posts during the night-time shift at the hospital.
Tim Ellis, North West regional organiser for Unison, fears more than 200 jobs could be lost.
He said the trust has said it must save around £5.5million over the next three years – the equivalent of 220 jobs.
He added: “They will make a £1million saving by cutting night staff by 50 per cent.
"Staff are profoundly concerned about what this will mean for patient safety and care and staff safety.
“The trust was found to be one of the most dangerous to work in both for patients and staff in 2008 due to the number of incidents including suicides and attacks.
"So reducing staffing levels will just put the patients and staff at risk.”
But Russ Pearce, trust chief executive, said: “Our organisation is set up in such a way that most of our costs are in staffing and so we have to make cuts in this area.
“Sometimes we have too many staff on the night time and not enough in the day because we have old shift patterns which have not been changed in 30 years.”
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