UP TO 70 jobs are set to be axed from East Lancashire's hospitals as bosses struggle to balance their books.

The losses, including senior managers, administration and clerical, registered and unregistered nurses, are being earmarked as part of a reorganisation of wards and bed cuts.

Hospital bosses today pledged to give staff affected priority for other vacancies within their trust - and implement a recruitment freeze as well.

Today, politicians and a patients' group said they feared for the long-term affects of balancing the books.

And one councillor claimed the long-term sickness absence of chief executive John Thomas, who has been away from his desk for more than a year, had added to the problems and needed to be resolved.

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust - which runs Blackburn Royal Infirmary, Queen's Park Hospital, Burnley General Hospital, Rossendale General Hospital and Pendle Community Hospital - is currently £5.5million in debt.

The trust, set up in 2003 when Blackburn and Burnley hospital trusts merged, inherited around £1million in debt from the Burnley trust. It has also blamed the cost of meeting tough Government waiting time targets as another reason for the cash crisis.

A previous plan to make savings away from frontline services, announced in April when the trust recorded debts of £3.9million at the end of its first financial year, failed to halt the increasing debt.

A new plan, which includes cutting up to 120 beds across the five hospitals and axing night-time catering, was unveiled last month before consultation began with staff.

Today, trust bosses said around 70 posts would be affected by the proposed changes, with 50 existing vacancies being left open. Twenty posts will be axed, with staff being moved to other vacancies within the trust.

Richard Gildert, acting chief executive of the trust, which employs 6,500 people, said: "The workforce implications are currently being worked through.

"Initial indications are that there will be approximately 70 staff affected."

The current proposals would save the trust around £2.3million by the end of the financial year.

Other savings would be sought through existing spending curbs. More than £1million extra has been secured from East Lancashire's three Primary Care Trusts - which pay for patients to have operations - after more surgery was carried out than originally budgeted for.

Mr Gildert added that he was confident patient care would not be compromised by the reduction in staff.

He said: "Rather than focusing on number of beds, attention goes instead on the patient's journey which is made smoother.

"This has been tried elsewhere in the trust and has worked."

Mollie Manthorpe, chairman of the East Lancashire Patients' Forum, said: "We are worried that once these beds and jobs go, they will never come back."

Coun Ron Pickup, a county councillor for Bacup, told Lancashire County Council's health scrutiny committee: "Someone has to be to blame for this and I think the trust has suffered because it does not have someone overseeing everything with the power to make the changes needed.

"The chief executive has been on long-term sick and I think this issue needs to be brought to a head, either with him coming back to work or a permanent alternative solution being found.

"It is wrong that this is happening when, just a couple of years ago, the two previous trusts were performing so well."

Longridge county councillor Mary Wilson said: "My concern is that the reduction in beds will put greater pressure on the primary care trusts to treat people in the community."

Tory councillor Sarah Fishwick added: "I can't understand how such a debt can accumulate. Even the proposals have wild fluctuations in the amount of money that will be saved."

Hyndburn MP Greg Pope said: "This issue of debt needs to be brought under control once and for all."