The Trust is trying to claw back an �15.8m deficit

Workers who are over 65, and those who have worked at the trust's three hospitals for under two years, face having their contracts terminated.

The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust is trying to claw back an �15.8m deficit and said it would cut 300 jobs.

In a statement it said it was trying to "minimise the need for redundancies".

If the trust continued to spend at its current rate, its deficit for last year and the current financial year would be �31m.

The region's strategic health authority has said it could only allow the figure to climb to �20m, hence the need for cuts.

The cutbacks will affect staff at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, St Michael's Hospital in Hayle and West Cornwall Hospital in Penzance.

'Morale horrendous'

In a statement on Friday the trust said: "As part of our financial recovery plan the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust needs to reduce the number of staff employed and we are working to minimise the need for redundancies.

"As part of this work we are reviewing fixed term contracts for staff who have been employed for less than two years and we are ending some permanent contracts for staff aged over 65 who have reached or exceeded normal retirement age."

It said some workers aged over 65 or those on fixed term contracts would continue to be employed if their roles were of a "specialist or hard to recruit skill".

It said both measures would enable permanent staff, whose jobs were potentially at risk, to be employed in other roles.

But a nurse, who did not want to be named, told the BBC that morale was "horrendous" and that she has "never known it to be so bad".

Earlier this week it emerged that St Michael's Hospital could be closed under plans being considered as well as an end to emergency work at West Cornwall Hospital and creating a "nurse-led" minor injuries unit.