A NURSE has accused Southampton hospital bosses of breaking their contract by cutting vital rehabilitation classes for heart patients.

Cheryl Harding, cardiac services' lead nurse for Southampton City Primary Care Trust, claims Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust has already been paid to provide the classes which help people recover from cardiac problems.

Now PCT directors are in discussion with trust bosses to find out what has happened to the funding meant for the service.

But hospital chiefs say there is nothing in their contract which commits them to provide the classes.

Mrs Harding said: "We have had cardiac rehabilitation in the city for ten or 12 years and it has always been provided by Southampton's hospitals.

"Now they have just decided that it is not something Southampton General Hospital should be doing. They have broken their contract with the city."

The Daily Echo revealed earlier this month how the eight-week cardiac classes, held at leisure centres around Southampton and the Waterside, were being axed by health chiefs who run Southampton's hospitals, as part of a multi-million pound cost-cutting drive.

Hospital bosses say the move will save £20,000 - a fraction of their £15m target.

But heart patients from across the city insist that axing the classes will cost much more in the long-run because, without proper aftercare, dozens of people could end up back in hospital.

In a Daily Echo-backed campaign they are calling for the reinstatement of the service. Mrs Harding claims the trust had no right to stop it in the first place.

"They are under a contracted obligation to provide services for the PCT. This goes against that contract."

As a main provider of healthcare services the trust is paid by the primary care trust, which gets its funding from the government.

The trust is then contractually obliged to provide the services for which it has been paid.

"We have bought this service on behalf of our patients because it is part of the established care package for patients," said Mrs Harding.

"Within that care package there would be a programme of rehabilitation."

She added that the matter was being dealt with by the PCT "at the highest level".

Robbie Burns, acting clinical services manager for Southampton's NHS trust, told the Daily Echo that the cardiac classes were not listed explicitly within the trust's contract with the PCT.

"I can assure you this service is not outlined within the contract as being provided," he said.