STAFF at the Alexandra Hospital are waiting on tenterhooks to see if a jobs axe will swing in their direction.

Crunch talks on the future of jobs across Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust are expected to take place at a board meeting tomorrow.

Workers have been faced with the possibility of job losses as the trust grapples to make savings of more than £20 million.

Fears escalated after Finnamore Management Consultants, employed by the trust to come up with money-saving ideas, recommended a cull of up to 600 jobs.

Last month, a similarly cash-strapped trust made 1,000 staff redundant at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.

Unison representative at the Alex Nina Woodford said although the Worcestershire trust had almost balanced its end-of-year books, there were still accumulative debts and job or service cuts were still on the cards.

"Staff know something is going on and obviously they feel very concerned," she said.

"We have been told there will have to be changes made but we are not sure what they will be. We don't know if there will be job cuts or service cuts - or both.

"If your staff numbers are reduced, then you need to look at the services you can provide."

She added: "For the first time in a long time, nursing levels are what they should be and it would be such a shame if there were jobs cuts now.

"But there is no point in trying to second guess what is going to happen, we'll just have to wait. We still don't know if anything is going to be said after Thursday's meeting."

But one thing Mrs Woodford has requested is staff are made aware of any cuts before they are announced in the local press.

She said: "People have the right to know what is going to happen to their jobs before they read about it in the newspaper."

A trust spokesman said: "We are currently looking at the financial position for next year. We expect it to be extremely challenging and we expect some hard decisions may well have to be made.

"Chief executive John Rostill is in the process of preparing a report which will go to the board tomorrow and until that meeting has taken place, we probably won't be in a position to add anything more."