Services will not be cut at Whipps Cross University Hospital and redundancies are not expected, health bosses have announced.

Barts Health, the largest trust in England, is preparing wide-ranging measures to prevent being placed into administration after it was revealed that it is £15.7m in the red two months into the financial year.

In a statement issued today, Barts said it has no plans to cut or remove services and that redundancies are not anticipated, but did not rule out job losses in the future.

In a statement the trust said: "Over the coming months we will be looking at proposals for the optimum location of our services and, in conjunction with Clinical Commissioning Groups, explore opportunities to care for our patients closer to home.

It added that the trust would only implement any significant change to services following agreement with the commissioner and other parties.

Barts has vowed to examine 1,600 vacant roles in all its hospitals, which are currently filled by costly agency staff.

A spokeswoman said in many cases the trust will be acting swiftly to fill the vacancies in order to remove high costs.

Barts Health chief executive, Peter Morris, has written to all managers outlining the details of the turnaround process and face-to-face briefings are being held for all staff.


The statement added: "We wish to be clear that Barts Health is not in administration.


"Having not met our own financial targets for the first quarter of the financial year we have, with immediate effect, placed ourselves in financial turnaround."

"Financial turnaround has not been imposed on us and by taking this decision proactively and at the earliest possible opportunity we believe we have acted responsibly to secure our long term financial viability, allowing us to continue to provide world-class healthcare to the people of east London and beyond."

Barts Health also operates Mile End Hospital, the London Chest Hospital, Newham University Hospital, The Royal London and Bart’s.