health chiefs have announced a cull of 720 jobs across the county's hospitals, leaving thousands of nurses, doctors and admin staff fearing for their livelihoods.

The move - which was announced yesterday and affects one in seven of the 4,500 strong full-time workforce - is a desperate attempt to plug £16m of a £31.4m shortfall in funding the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has identified in 2006/07.

This is on top of a deficit of about £30m that has been accumulating since the Trust was formed in 2000, meaning it is heading for a debt of more than £60m. Worcestershire MP Peter Luff said it was the blackest day he could remember in Worcestershire's history.

We've had our hours changed and now this

STAFF across Worcestershire's hospitals are today trying to come to terms with the fact their jobs are on the line.

Nurses leaving their shift yesterday were reeling from the blow that 70 of their colleagues were among 720 job losses across the board at Worcestershire Royal Hospital, the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch and Kidderminster Hospital.

Health chiefs say they have no other options but to make redundancies after identifying a massive £31.4m shortfall in funding this financial year.

This is on top of the underlying deficit of about £30m that has been growing since the Trust was formed in April 2000. £5.5m of this is the latest overspend in 2005/2006.

One nurse, who asked to remain anonymous, said the news had hit staff hard.

"We knew something was going on," she said.

"There have already been changes to our hours which we are not happy about and everyone is fed up."

Another blamed Trust management. He said: "If this was industry and the managers weren't performing they'd be out. There's already been votes of no confidence in the Trust board."

Both said that losses of front line staff would undoubtedly mean that patients would lose out.

"We're already stretched to the limit but this is going to make things unbearable," they said.

"A lot of nurses are only here for the patients - after all, if it weren't for them we wouldn't have a job.

"But then again, it looks like we won't anyway, now."

Edna Hall, Unison representative for Worcestershire, blamed the controversial PFI funding of the Royal for the debts.

"What we've got is a private finance company creaming off profit and ploughing nothing back into the front line," she added.

"The people of Worcestershire are now paying the price - the loss of 720 jobs has to affect services."

John Rostill, chief executive of Worcestershire Royal Hospital, said 100 of the redundancies have already been accounted for as they are current vacancies that will not be filled.

Nursing staff account for a further 70 posts being axed, while it is hoped the majority of the remaining 550 will be lost through natural staff turnover and voluntary redundancies.

He blamed the spiralling debts on taking on hundreds of extra staff, increasing wage bills, and treating more patients, more quickly and with more expensive drugs and equipment. He said it was this, coupled with the fact that the Trust was getting less money from the Government for various procedures it carries out - like patients who are admitted as emergencies.

But he remained adamant that patient safety would be paramount and target waiting times would continue to be hit.

"If there was an easy way out we would have taken it by now," he added. "Hard times are ahead. People can fight against us or they can fight with us and support us as we strive to secure the future of their hospitals."