THERE is always room for greater efficiency in businesses and organisations of all kinds.

A huge operation like the NHS should never be exempt from the quest to do things more effectively and to save money too.

But when those running our hospitals are told they have to find millions of pounds of ‘efficiency savings’ there’s only going to be one result.

Jobs will have to be axed because the overwhelming majority of money spent on the NHS is for wages.

In East Lancashire this is going to mean 874 jobs going over the next few years including well over 200 nurses and almost 50 doctors.

Trust bosses hope to achieve the reductions by natural wastage rather than redundancy but that isn’t the point.

The Coalition government promised the NHS would be ‘ring-fenced’ and ‘front-line services’ protected.

There’s no suggestion that the demand for hospital services in East Lancashire is declining.

Nor have we been told we have more doctors and nurses than we need.

It’s difficult to disagree with those who will protest the government is, in effect, cutting essential services.