MATRONS are being axed by cash-strapped hospital bosses - just five years after they were returned to wards in a blaze of glory.

Eleven matrons at Burnley General and the Royal Blackburn hospitals are being made redundant as part of a £15.6million savings programme.

Caroline Collins, regional officer of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said she had "grave concerns" over the future of clinical standards at East Lancashire's hospitals following the announcement.

Matrons were introduced after a 30-year absence in 2002. Each was put in charge of four wards and given the powers over budgets, catering and cleaning, as well as being in charge of nurses.

Only experienced staff were appointed to the post, which can command a salary of up to £31,000.

At the time of their re-launch, the then Health Secretary Alan Milburn said the matron would ensure the NHS reached the "gold standard" of quality care.

He said: "Matron will lead by example: setting the highest standards for nursing care.

"I want more staff working at the NHS frontline - and more power for frontline staff.

"Bringing back Matron is a huge vote of confidence in the country's nurses."

Ms Collins reacted with shock at the news such heralded workers were now being axed.

She said: "These are nurses with more than 20 years' experience, whose skills can lead and organise nursing staff to ensure the clinical environment is safe for patients.

"We need leadership and we need clinicians on the wards."

The union is now demanding to know why the clinical posts have been pinpointed for either redundancy or redeployment.

Matrons were given the key task of leading the fight against hospital infections.

Cases across the trust have increased from around 50 cases per quarter to 88 by the end of 2006.

And recorded cases of major hospital bug, MRSA, rose from 56 in 2005 to 64 in 2006.

John Amos, chairman of the local public and patient information forum, said: "If this is correct then the hospital can ill afford to lose people of such experience and proven ability.

"Our concern is that standards of clinical care for patients should not be affected."

Under the cuts, 60 people in total face redundancy and a further 67 are in an at-risk' category, with hospital chiefs looking to move them to other jobs rather than lay them off.

Most of the jobs affected are managerial or administrative.

A spokesman for East Lancashire Hospitals insisted that only a small number of the roles identified for potential redundancy had clinical titles'.

The spokesman said that a number of matrons would remain working for the trust, but could not give exact figures on how many would be left after the 11 had gone.

He added: "They have been selected mainly because the role is duplicated elsewhere in the organisation.

"Where this has happened, we want to retain the clinical element of the role and the clinical skills of the current post holder, making the management element of the role redundant.

"As we go through the process we will be working hard to do this - including in some cases bringing together the clinical elements of a number of roles to produce a dedicated direct clinical care role."