UNION officials have accused hospital bosses of targetting the salaries of those who provide vital front line service to patients as part of cost-cutting.

Health union Unison said it had information that South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was planning to reduce the pay of staff such as health care assistants and medical secretaries.

It said this process - known in the NHS as ‘down banding’ – involves hospitals reducing an individual’s pay by altering their job description.

The South Tees trust, which runs the 1,000 bed James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough and the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, is trying to reduce a deficit of £91m within three years.

Last November the trust’s chief executive Professor Tricia Hart warned staff of potential job losses because of the need to balance the books.

Glen Home, Unison branch secretary for the South Tees trust also accused the trust of closing wards and community hospitals and outsourcing the work of the trust’s payroll staff - to an organisation more than 100 miles away in East Lancashire, making 37 employees redundant.

Mark Clifford, Unison regional organiser in the North-East said: “The trust board need to take a very close look at itself because it is not our nurses HCAs and other health professionals at James Cook University Hospital who created the staggering £91m deficit.”

A spokeswoman for the South Tees Hospitals Trust said: “We’ve been very open about the difficult financial position the trust is facing and the need for us to deliver a recovery plan that includes making savings of £90m over three years and last year we began a programme of transformational change that will eventually touch all areas of the organisation.

“The trust has a strong track record of protecting jobs and finding staff alternative roles within the organisation but with the challenges we face, we have to look at all options to make savings, work more efficiently, and wherever possible, improve services.

“As 62 per cent of all our costs relate to workforce, we have to review our staffing to ensure that we get the best value for money from the resources we have – and can invest - in staff and also that we’re working in the most efficient and effective way possible.

“There is never an easy time to do this and we do not underestimate the impact this can have on people, which is why any proposal to remove a post or change roles are carried out in full consultation with staff.”