More than 50,000 NHS jobs face being axed because of Government spending cuts, according to a new report today.

An anti-cuts campaign group says the jobs lost would include doctors, nurses and dentists.

But the trust which runs Shropshire’s two main hospitals said it had no plans to make staff redundant. However, it warned that if in future services are lost to centres outside the county, some jobs could be at risk.

The national study by the TUC-backed False Economy found that health trusts were cutting staff or warning of job losses.

The TUC said the research “gives the lie” to Government claims that the NHS was safe in its hands.

The report detailed a series of cuts including University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust, which is forecasting a reduction of 1,349 full-time posts from 2011 to 2015, some 22.5 per cent of its staff.

The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust also expects to cut 461 full-time posts by 2015, the equivalent of a 16 per cent reduction.

False Economy said the total number of confirmed, planned and potential NHS staff cuts across the country was more than 53,000, adding that more NHS trusts were expected to announce staff cuts over the next four months, including all Wales’s health boards.

Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust spokesman Adrian Osborne said: “We have no planned redundancies but we do recognise we face a very challenging economic climate and need to make savings of at least four per cent every year for the next three years in order to live within the resources we receive from the taxpayer.

“We are aiming to maintain safe and sustainable services in our hospitals but if services do leave the county, then potentially it could mean redundancies.”

A report to the trust board tomorrow shows that last month it overspent on pay by more than £1.4 million.

Agency spending increased by £196,000, including £97,000 on nurses.

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, which supports False Economy, said: “False Economy’s new research on NHS job cuts gives the lie to Government claims that the NHS was safe in their hands.”