HEALTH bosses could axe up to 150 jobs and close hospital wards as part of huge spending cuts, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Nurses could be made redundant as managers try to save £14m before April 2006.

Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust and

Mid Hampshire Primary Care Trust, which are merging, plan to save five per cent on staffing costs. Together they currently employ about 3,000 people and run sites including the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.

Compulsory redundancies are "almost certain", a report to a joint board meeting of the trusts on Wednesday warns.

Should more than 60 posts go, a one-month formal consultation with staff will start on April 1.

Shocked staff were told at meetings yesterday in Winchester, Andover and Bullington, the headquarters of the primary care trust.

A trust spokesman said: "We are focussing on avoiding duplication among managerial staff as a result of the integration of the two trusts. For example, there may only be one director of finance. There is now only one chief executive. We hope no nurses will be lost. We hope to redeploy them."

Managers believe 75 beds, and possibly some wards, can be cut without a reduction in services. That would leave 435 beds in the Royal Hampshire County Hospital and Andover War Memorial Hospital.

A new treatment centre at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital will mean more day or outpatient cases and reduce the need for overnight stays.

New facilities at Andover War Memorial Hospital will cut the current blocking of some 60 beds.

The news follows similar problems in Southampton, where 400 jobs have been axed over the past year.

Doug Smith, secretary of the joint trades unions, an umbrella organisation of 11 bodies at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, said there would be anger among the workforce.

Mr Smith said: "We were asked to save £13m this year. Now they are looking to save £14m. I'm totally disgusted. The staff are just fed up. Year on year we are asked to save, save, save. Morale is rock bottom."

Chris Evennett, joint chief executive of both health trusts, said: "Both trusts have had recurring financial difficulties for some years and now is the time to tackle this. Working together will help us focus on this issue."