THE axing of thousands of frontline NHS jobs will put our country’s healthcare service under massive strain, a Huddersfield expert has claimed.

Peter Bradshaw, emeritus professor of health service policy at Huddersfield University, said that cutting staff will put extra stress on hospital workers and lead to a weakened healthcare provision for patients.

His comments come following claims by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) that almost 40,000 posts across the UK face being lost over the next three years.

Half of these are expected to be frontline staff, such as doctors, nurses and midwives.

The health union says that more medics than previously expected will be out of work because of Coalition spending cuts.

Dr Peter Carter, chief executive of the RCN, said it was a myth that the Government was protecting the frontline against cuts and that axing staff could have “catastrophic” consequences for patient safety and care.

Prof Bradshaw agrees with this. He said: “The Government has to save £20bn of NHS funding by 2015, but as the annual spend on healthcare is £100bn that’s a considerable proportion. These cutbacks will mean that the majority of jobs that will go will be frontline, which has implications for both patients and staff.

“The RCN has said that the impact of cutting these jobs will be catastrophic and I agree.

“It will create an extra strain on staff who have to pick up extra work as well as having an impact on the quality of care given to patients because we will not get the usual skills mix.”

The health union says that some hospitals will axe hundreds of nurses, while others will downgrade nursing jobs by using less qualified healthcare assistants instead.

Prof Bradshaw is concerned that this could lead to patients not getting proper access to treatment.

He said: “I am not being unkind to healthcare assistants, who do a marvellous job, but this would dilute the skills mix and the people being looked after will start to feel the consequences.

“Less staff would also have an impact on access to care. The Labour government had aimed to get the waiting times down but this would mean patients waiting longer to be seen.

“The thing about healthcare in this country is that we more or less have the same access to treatment whether we are in Penrith or Penzance.

“But this equality of access and equality of availability could be impaired as we get areas where facilities are closed down or healthcare isn’t adequate because there’s not enough staff.

“The North Staffordshire hospitals enquiry – where they had 400 deaths – heard that people were being treated without qualified nurses.

“That’s an extreme example, but I do worry about the impact of the job cuts on patient care, particularly on those unable to advocate for themselves like the frail and the elderly.”