INCENSED nurses have hit out at the ‘ludicrous’ salary the interim chief executive was being paid while frontline staff prepare for more cuts at Dorset County Hospital.

Staff nurse Sandra Miller, who works on an acute surgical ward at DCH in Dorchester, is furious that nurses are being axed or given reduced hours this September ‘as a direct result of saving money’.

Mrs Miller, who has worked in Dorset’s hospitals for 32 years, first at Weymouth and District and then at DCH, said everyone was ‘incensed’ by the Echo’s revelations about the £2,557-a-day cost of employing interim chief executive Derek Smith.

He also claimed £20,000 in expenses for food, travel and subsistence.

She said: “We’re working our socks off on the Abbotsbury Ward and our sister ward Lulworth, where staffing numbers are going to be cut.

“Everyone’s been grumbling about what’s going to happen and after seeing the Echo article I was incensed.

“The time has come to stand up and be counted. I think I owe it to my colleagues.

“The public need to know what’s going on.

“Instead of putting a lot of money into management, more sisters should be allowed to run sisters’ wards.

“We’ve got too many people above sister level, they’re all dealing with targets and this government should get rid of the tiers of managers.”

She added: “We’ve been told on the Abbotsbury Ward that we don’t need the staffing levels we’ve got.

“But any of our patients from the last two years will tell you that’s the most ridiculous statement.”

Mrs Miller’s ‘biggest complaint’ is that DCH bosses intend to cut one auxiliary nurse – also known as a health care support worker – from the morning shift at the Abbotsbury Ward.

The ward currently has 29 acute patients, including drug addicts and alcoholics, who are cared for each morning by four health care support workers and four staff nurses – known as seniors.

Mrs Miller said the change would directly impact patient care.

She said: “It’s a time when a lot of patients need essential care. It will mean patients don’t get washed in the morning or have observations done.

“They also want to cut the afternoons to three staff nurses and three health support workers and overnight we’ll be losing a health care support worker, so instead of three there’s going to be two.

“That’s never going to be enough.

Mrs Miller has written to South Dorset MP Richard Drax and DCH nursing director Alison Tong to voice her concerns.

Many staff at DCH want to know why a U-turn decision was made in February on the announcement of 200 redundancies of senior posts.

Mrs Miller said: “We’re all saying ‘Why didn’t it happen?’ “We’ve got far too many bosses we could do with getting rid of.

“There has been some natural wastage but we’ve seen a lot of bosses moved sideways to other senior jobs.

“Now they’re cutting it where it matters at the heart of patient care and it’s going to be happening in September this year.”

A member of nursing staff, who did not wish to be named, said she saw sisters in tears saying: ‘This is ridiculous, we can’t work under these sorts of numbers.’ She said: “We were never really asked at the shop floor. We were told and the matrons who made these decisions are not working on the ground floor, some haven’t worked on ward level for years.

“Many of them who have can’t stand it and go off with stress.

“I know sisters on wards who’ve said they will not be accountable for the problems and complaints that are going to come in because they’re cutting staff levels.”

A spokesman for Dorset County Hospital said: “This is absolutely not about reducing staff but employing existing nurses appropriately so that patients and their families get the best possible care and support.”

The hospital’s director of nursing and operations, Alison Tong, said: “It is critically important to the trust that all our patients receive the right level of care by staff with the right skills at the right time.

“To ensure this is the case, we have recently reviewed the skills and numbers of staff in all our wards so that all our patients receive safe and effective care.

“This means that in some areas we will be increasing the number and skills of staff and in a few areas we are reducing the number of staff.

“We have made these changes jointly with the ward sisters and matrons.

“Our aim by undertaking this review is to improve the care to patients and support for their families.

“I am sorry that a member of our staff views these changes as cuts and I would be very happy to discuss the changes with any staff who are concerned.”