The trust is trying to save �15m

Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS trust revealed its plans to staff last week. They were approved at a board meeting on Tuesday night.

The trust, which runs hospitals in Scarborough and Bridlington, plans to close wards and reduce non-clinical support services to save �15m.

Union officials said the cuts will have a "devastating" impact on patients.

The trust's chief executive, Iain McInnes, said the trust needed to work "more efficiently, with fewer positions".

'Last resort'

He said: "We need to make serious changes to our hospital trust to make sure we are using taxpayers' money better and to reshape our workforce to reflect future patient demand.

"These changes won't be easy but once they are implemented we will be a stronger, leaner and more efficient organisation employing over 1,500 NHS staff."

Mr McInnes said the trust would try to scrap posts by reducing the amount it spends on temporary staff and through natural turnover and redeployment.

"Once these alternatives have been examined we will look at early retirements, only then will we start to look at voluntary redundancies, with compulsory redundancies being considered only as a very last resort."

A work plan will be presented to the trust's September board meeting.

Senior consultants at the hospitals have branded the plans "ill considered" and warned its effects would be disastrous for patients and the wider community.