Local NHS Trust Pauses New Recruitment
Cost rises lead to hiring freeze at Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospitals
A surgical team at Charing Cross Hospital. Picture: Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
April 25, 2025
A local NHS Trust has had to temporarily pause the majority of its recruitment and use of agency staff as it attempts to meet tight financial targets.
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs hospitals including Charing Cross, Hammersmith and St Mary’s, has said the additional £22 billion the Government pumped into the NHS nationally has been absorbed by pay increases, inflation and other pressures.
This has led to Trusts having to spend one per cent less to do ‘significantly more with the money we have’.
Claire Hook, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive at the Trust, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that despite the challenges the organisation is in a ‘strong shape’ and has ‘a sensible way forward that prioritises everyone’s safety’.
A spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the Government understands the financial pressures Imperial and other Trusts are facing, pointing to the £26bn it is providing to the NHS and social care.
In a blog post uploaded to the Imperial website, Chief Executive Professor Tim Orchard wrote that in order to meet their financial obligations NHS Trusts are having to implement a range of cost-cutting measures.
These include reducing substantive workforces by one per cent, bank (internal agency) staff by 15 per cent, and external staff by a third.
For Imperial, this means removing at least 450 full-time equivalent posts, primarily through cutting bank and agency staff but also assessing existing vacancies.
This also involves delivering £80.1 million of ‘cost improvements’, equivalent to about four per cent of its budget, if it is to deliver a breakeven plan for 2025/26.
Changes are being made to boost productivity, Professor Orchard continued, such as by clinicians exploring how to avoid unnecessary follow-ups, and the Trust’s private care services are being looked at in an effort to increase their income.
Both Professor Orchard and Ms Hook have raised how, as the new financial year began on April 1, the Trust had however only been able to identify half of the improvements required.
Ms Hook said, “We therefore took the decision to put further controls on recruitment and use of temporary staff during April and May, except for where it’s necessary to ensure safety, to keep us on track while we make more sustainable changes in line with our strategic goals.
“Our organisation is in strong shape – thanks to the hard work and expertise of our staff, collaboration with health and care partners and the involvement of our patients and local communities – and we have a sensible way forward that prioritises everyone’s safety.”
A spokesperson for the DHSC said, “We understand the financial pressures facing Imperial and other NHS trusts. This government inherited a broken NHS and through our Plan for Change, we have put £26bn into our NHS and social care.
“Since taking office, we have cut waiting lists by over 200,000, ended the resident doctor strikes to keep staff on the front line, and delivered the extra three million appointments we promised.”
Imperial recently announced it is looking at options for a ‘major refurbishment’ of Charing Cross Hospital’s ground and first floors.
Planned works include improvements to the hospital entrance and ground floor toilets and expanding the food and retail offer.
In January it was revealed that three Imperial sites, Charing Cross, Hammersmith and St Mary’s, are to receive the final round of the Government’s New Hospital Programme funding, meaning works will not begin for a decade.
The Government has since committed to providing millions of pounds towards detailed designs and planning for the redevelopment of St Mary’s Hospital.
Ben Lynch – Local Democracy Reporter