Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust needs to save a further �3m

The Trust has found ways of saving �10m but still needs to save another �3m and some of this is likely to come from job cuts at Derriford Hospital.

The Trust says it has to reduce its expenditure to break even this financial year otherwise it could be forced to postpone major expansion schemes.

The Trust's chief executive, Paul Roberts, said pay makes up the biggest proportion of the budget, and posts will need to be removed from low-priority areas in order to concentrate money on services for patients.

Mr Roberts said he hoped enough savings could be made by freezing vacant posts and reducing the use of agency staff .

But he is not ruling out a small number of redundancies.