Daniel Zeichner MP has called for an urgent rethink after Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority issued an instruction to reduce NHS staffing to save money. 

The edict comes as Addenbrooke’s urged people not to go to A & E unless it is an emergency. 

Addenbrookes’s website says: “Our services in general are under greater pressure due to increased numbers of frail elderly patients and more people coming to A & E seeking our expertise.” 

Daniel Zeichner MP said: “What a mess. The very last thing Addenbrooke’s needs is an instruction from the centre to cut hardworking staff. 

We have a social care system in crisis made worse by the Conservatives on Cambridgeshire County Council refusing to levy the Chancellor’s 2% for social care with obvious knock on effects at Addenbrooke’s. 

Between £12m and £20m wasted on the now notorious and still unaccounted for experiment with out-sourcing in the county.

The Government needs to get its priorities right so patients don’t suffer.”