A GLASGOW hospital saved from the axe by Nicola Sturgeon is facing closure as the health board battles to make at least £60million of cuts.

Documents seen by the Evening Times detail staff and bed cuts, the downgrading of other posts and a reduction in NHS sites including Lightburn Hospital, in the city’s east end.

Jobs under threat include district nursing, nurse specialists, health visitors and Allied Health Professionals including radiographers.

Potential posts which could be “deleted” include senior nursing roles which do not have patient contact, public health and administration.

The papers also reveal that an overspend of £1million is “propping up” services as the board battles to meet targets and that it is reliant on “one-off” additional government funding to run services.

Union leaders called for a “mature debate” among political leaders about NHS funding and the future of services.

The plan also includes the closure of the paediatric ward 15 Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley and a transfer of emergency care from the Vale of Leven to the RAH.

In 2011, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde wanted to transfer services from Lightburn Hospital to Stobhill and Glasgow Royal Infirmary, saving £650,000 a year.

The then Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon intervene after more than 7,000 people signed a petition to save the 120-bed facility, near the city’s Cranhill park.

Lightburn provides rehabilitative care for older patients, including specialist units for stroke and post trauma patients.

The board’s cost-cutting plan also states that if some vacancies are not filled by three months, “alternative staffing models” will be put in place.

It has already identified £13/14 million savings leaving it with an additional £48 million to find.

The document states: “That challenge needs to be considered with the further issues that: the acute division is currently overspending by £1 million a month.

“Major workforce issues filling staffing gaps is a major current cost problem.

“Workforce is our biggest cost, to deliver this savings target we need to reduce the numbers of staff we have and establish a lower unit costs ways of delivering services.

“We need to deliver the same level of service for less cost to continue to meet the needs of patients while reducing spending.

“We reshape services and reduce sites and facilities to deliver our savings but maintain services to patients.”

The papers also reveal services are being “propped up” to ensure the board can deliver national targets and that it is relying on “one-off” funding to run services.

They state: “Additional beds have been funded by £5million of “non recurrent” Scottish Government funding and £7million of services are being funded by “non recurrent” winter funding.”

Audit Scotland has warned that tightening budgets combined with rising costs, higher demand for services, increasingly demanding targets and growing staff vacancies mean the NHS will not be able to continue to provide services in the way it currently does.

Unison’s Regional Organiser Matt McLaughlin said: “Despite the political rhetoric this is the tenth year in a row that NHSGGC has been given less money than it costs to run the service.

“Whilst unison does not agree with cuts, with staff and beds accounting for the biggest percentage of that spend, it’s little wonder that the board are now actively, looking to reduce staff grades, get more out of less staff and close sites and beds.

“?Unison calls for a mature debate amongst political leaders about how the NHS is funded and what it should look like going forward. We will resist any attempts to make our members and our services pay for the failing austerity agenda.”

The plan also includes greater use of ACAD (Ambulatory Care and Diagnostic) hospitals such as Stobhill Hospital, which focusses on outpatient consultation and day surgery and limiting patient access to podiatry and physiotherapy. The in-house catering service will also be reviewed for “cost-effectiveness.”

A draft financial plan is due to be in place by the end of January.

A spokeswoman from NHSGCC, said: “The Scottish Government expects every public body to deliver efficiency savings of at least 3 per cent per year to help offset cost pressures.

“These cost pressures include new service developments, modernisation programmes and ways in which our workforce can be developed to deliver safe and sustainable services best suited to deliver the needs of patients.

“We also operate in a climate of continued increasing patient demand and increased cost of new technologies and drugs treatments.

“In common with every other public sector body, NHSGGC is therefore examining all of our services to see how we can deliver these more efficiently.

“Clearly not all of the schemes being considered will be implemented, but as a Board it would be remiss of us to exclude potential areas without proper and full consideration.

“Any significant service change will only be implemented following full engagement with the public and trades unions.

The Acute Division was over budget by £7m at month eight against its annual budget of £1.367 billion.

"As previously advised, NHSGGC expect to deliver a balanced budget for the year ending March 2016.”