CASH-STRAPPED health chiefs are planning to axe 600 jobs and close wards at hospitals on the Yorkshire coast.

Almost a third of the workforce is expected to go at the Scarborough and North East Yorkshire NHS Trust, which provides health care to parts of Ryedale and the Yorkshire coast.

The trust is also planning ward closures, service cuts and increased workloads for staff who keep their job as it tries to cope with its £20 million debt.

Unions warned of lives at risk and a devastating effect on the local community and medical services, and started an immediate campaign to save jobs.

Unite regional officer Terry Cunliffe said: "We do not believe cuts on this scale can fail to threaten lives and for that reason we will do everything and campaign vigorously to defend jobs."

Kevin Austerberry, the Royal College Of Nursing's regional director in Yorkshire and the Humber, said: "If true, this decision has the potential to threaten patient care, destroy staff morale and rip the heart out of the local community."

Karen Jennings, Unison's head of health, said: "These 600 compulsory redundancies will resonate across the NHS and strike fear into the heart of local communities and staff where there are historic debts.

UNISON regional officer Ray Gray said: "I simply cannot believe they are planning to take that number of staff out of the hospitals and expect them to function. It is just not possible."

Union bosses are now seeking urgent talks with Health Secretary Alan Johnson.

The Trust, which says it is the largest employer in the area, plans to cut its workforce to 1,372 from 1,972 and its wage bill by £15 million by April 1. Increased productivity, ward closures and service cuts and reductions in non clinical support services are all planned along with the job cuts.

Its chief executive, Iain McInnes said: "These measures are not being taken lightly, but if we fail to act now, we face the prospect of being taken over by another trust within a few years, and the likelihood that services in Scarborough and Bridlington would be reduced.

"By taking difficult decisions now, the short-term pain can help to protect the long-term provision of services.

"I continue to believe that Scarborough and Bridlington Hospitals can have successful futures providing a solid core of the NHS services most needed by local people; that is an achievable vision worth fighting for."

The trust, founded in 1992, covers one of the largest geographical areas in England and also has to cope with the health problems of the tourists which double the region's population every summer.