FURIOUS health workers today blasted their bosses after claiming that plans for a super hospital in Blackburn could put their jobs in jeopardy.

The radical proposal to close Blackburn Infirmary and transfer services to Queen's Park Hospital will be completed under the controversial Private Finance Initiative (PFI) where firms will be invited to bid to do the building work.

But Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust has also opened up the possibility that several hospital services which are currently provided "in-house" will be put out to tender.

The move has alarmed staff who are worried that their pay, pension and other terms and conditions will be eroded if their employment is switched to a private firm. They have also claimed that they have not been consulted properly.

Trust chairman Ian Woolley has apologised to workers and vowed that they would be involved in "meaningful negotiations" over the coming months. But staff and union chiefs are threatening to "withdraw negotiations" if their views are not taken on board.

Dill Ecclestone, chairman of the staff Joint Negotiating Consultative Committee, said: "This has caused a real furore among the staff. We have had no input. The first we knew about it was at a meeting with management on Tuesday. "We need a lot more input because people's jobs are at stake. These are the people who keep the hospitals clean and the porters who are at the low end of the pay scale.

"These people are looking to us to influence the trust board to keep the services in house."

Under national PFI guidance, the trust is required to test services on a value for money basis and it is examining two options for accepting bids. The first will be for the building and engineering work, domestic services, car park management, security, and grounds and garden maintenance.

The second contains all those services, as well as catering services, portering and energy management. Staff are strongly opposed to the second option.

Chief executive John Thomas said it was always the trust's intention to retain as many services in-house as long as they were justified on a value for money basis.

He said the invitation for bids was trying to demonstrate to the outside world that the trust's own in-house services provided value for money

Mr Woolley urged staff not to withdraw from negotiations, saying it would not be in the interests of anybody.

He said: "We are not going to do anything which will put staff jobs at risk. We can only apologise if staff are not happy and we would like to keep up proper consultation."

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