HOSPITAL chiefs are to axe 28 management jobs at Dorset County Hospital to stop their finances ‘spiralling out of control’.

The severance pay for these senior staff will be around £3million – an average of £100,000 each.

All staff face a pay freeze next year – the only Foundation Trust hospital in the country to try to impose one.

Staff at the hospital were briefed by directors yesterday and told the initial details of the board’s Recovery Plan. The first cuts will fall on 28 senior roles – all bands seven and eight – from clinical and general roles in the hospital.

The loss of these roles will mean a saving of £1.6m in a year for Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust – which is currently facing a £7.4m deficit by the end of March next year.