Some wards at the hospital are to close

A spokesman for the GMB union said members wanted Paul Roberts to step down over plans to cut up to 400 jobs at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth.

It followed a meeting at the hospital attended by members of the GMB, Unison and the Royal College of Nursing.

Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust is trying to make savings of about �25m to balance its books.

An estimated 400 members attended the meeting on Thursday evening to discuss whether the proposed savings would adversely affecting patient care.

We're not going to take this lying down so Paul Roberts can look out Mandy Reynolds

At the beginning of August the trust announced the number of posts being cut had doubled from 200 to 400, although managers said only about 100 of these were likely to be compulsory redundancies.

Staff have also been told that some hospital wards will be closed.

Nurse Many Reynolds, who attended the meeting, said staff were going to fight for their patients and fight for their jobs.

She told BBC News: "We're not going to take this lying down so Paul Roberts can look out because we're coming and we're going to fight this.

"We were told yesterday that our ward would be closing. That's 35 patient beds and our turnover is very quick so where are these people going to go?"

Kevin Norman, from the GMB, said morale at the hospital was very low.

He said: "My members have called for us to write to the chief executive and ask for his resignation because they believe he is incapable of getting us out of the situation we find ourselves in."