NHS bosses today attacked what they described as "misleading" claims of massive job losses across the country by cash-strapped trusts.
The NHS Employers disputed the scale of redundancies reported over the past few months as healthcare unions held a rally in Westminster to highlight the "growing tide" of protest over job cuts.
The running tally is now over 11,500 job losses, with the prospect of "far bigger" cuts still to come, according to pressure group Health Emergency.
But NHS Employers, the pay negotiating arm of the NHS confederation, published conflicting evidence claiming the reductions were not as significant as unions claim.
The organisation representing NHS managers also stressed that a significant share of the redundancies was due to the changing services introduced as part of NHS reforms.
A document published on the NHS Employers' website states: "It is not unusual for employers to continually review and amend the number of posts in their organisations to keep pace with changes in the way services are provided - including new treatments and new roles for staff."
It also challenged the reported job losses at cash-strapped trusts, claiming that the true scale of reductions was far less than those claimed by unions.
Despite reports that 450 jobs were due to go at Norfolk and Norwich university hospital, the final figure was expected to be "very low", according to NHS managers.
Reported losses of 1,000 staff at the university hospital of North Staffordshire were wide of the mark, according to the report, with the real final figure expected to be around 550.
Cuts were usually achieved by freezing vacancies, scaling back the use of agency staff or redeploying staff in different ways with very few trusts resorting to compulsory redundancies, it added.
The NHS Employers' claim was made as it emerged that a walk-in centre in greater London is the latest casualty of cuts imposed by trusts trying to balance their books.
Nurse-led walk-in centres have proved popular with the general public since they were introduced in 2001 as part of health reforms outlined in the 10-year NHS plan in a bid to improve access to primary care.
The Croydon NHS walk-in centre was opened four years ago to improve access to primary care.
But the primary care trust has been forced to find 20% of savings out of its current £1.1m budget for the service by reducing medical cover, and freezing recruitment, and effectively reducing the service.
The strength of feeling over the cuts across the NHS by trusts seeking to restore financial balance saw more than 1,000 nurses, midwives, porters, cleaners and other NHS workers stage a protest today to warn MPs about the "devastating" impact of job cuts in the service.
Unison, the Royal College of Nursing, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and several other health unions and organisations came together to lobby parliament over the "growing tide of protest" against cuts.
The latest cuts emerged yesterday with news that a string of community hospitals are to close and up to 500 jobs may be lost to help balance a £38 million deficit.
Gloucestershire's three primary care trusts (PCTs) face a funding gap of £23m and the county's NHS provider trusts face a deficit of £15m.
Karen Jennings, Unison's head of health said: "NHS deficits are causing job cuts in hospitals and primary care trusts across the country and we want to show MPs the faces behind the figures.
"Last week's local election results sent a clear message that the public are not happy with the direction the government is taking. It's time to listen and stop the constant revolution de-stabilising our NHS, stop featherbedding the private sector and keep the NHS working."
Janet Davies, an official of the RCN, said: "It will give nurses an opportunity to talk to MPs about what is actually happening in hospitals across the country. We don't know of a single region that is not affected by cuts." A Department of Health spokesman dismissed the unions' claims. "We are not seeing major redundancy exercises across the service, as some reports have it. Most of the chief executives of trusts affected are stressing that roles will be changed or that staff will work in different ways.
"They have said that they expect most reductions to be achieved through 'natural turnover' - not replacing temporary or agency staff, freezing non-essential vacant posts and redeploying staff into other roles."
