Nurses attack the 'myth of health service protection'

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said waiting lists would rise as job losses mount due to "stealth cuts" to budgets.

It claimed 27,000 non-managerial NHS jobs had already gone or were going in the UK including 18,000 in England and 1,700 in Yorkshire.

NHS trusts were withholding evidence of redundancies, recruitment freezes and people not being replaced when they leave or retire.

Peter Carter, chief executive of the RCN, said: "The alleged protection of the health service is proving in practice to be a myth and patients and services are not insulated from cuts."

The NHS had been told to find efficiency savings of 15-20bn at the same time as a massive NHS reorganisation was implemented, offering "real cocktail for instability".

Average waiting times for patients last year were down to nine weeks but this would now rise. "We know all too well from examples such as Stafford Hospital that if you cut back staffing levels to the bare bones, patients suffer and can be put in danger," he added.

In Yorkshire, cuts have included 56 departures from the North Lincolnshire and Goole trust after staff were offered voluntary redundancy or early retirement, while 37 back office staff have been made redundant at Rotherham Hospital.

Kevin Austerberry, director for the RCN in Yorkshire, said: "The Government says its wants to protect frontline services during these extremely difficult times but the reality on the ground looks very different. Right now, nurses are not only concerned about losing their jobs, they are concerned about keeping services open and how they will cope if they stay."

Shadow Health Secretary John Healey said: "These NHS jobs and service cuts are not what people expected to see when David Cameron promised to protect the NHS.This RCN report is an early warning of the strains that the NHS is under and looming problems for staff and patients."

But NHS chief executive Sir David Nicholson disputed the RCN job figures. He said: "While it is for local trusts to determine their specific workforce needs, we have made it clear that efficiency savings must not impact adversely on patient care, and that every penny saved must be reinvested in support of frontline services and improving quality.

"The Government is committed to the NHS – to sustain and to improve services in the face of a tough economic climate – and that is why the NHS received a real terms increase in funding.

"But even with this commitment, in order to meet demand and improve the quality of services, the NHS needs to make up to 20bn of efficiency savings by 2015."