HEALTH bosses' "appetite" for cutbacks was blasted today after it was revealed hot lunches for patients and staff canteen discounts were being axed.

The East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust has already made a series of cuts to claw back £11.6million, including 20 per cent of overnight beds, having lightbulbs taken out to reduce energy costs and the loss of 300 job titles.

Now health bosses have been condemned for "penny pinching" and providing an "unfair solution" to the "mistakes of senior management" by axeing the hot lunches at Royal Blackburn Hospital and Burnley General.

Patients will instead be given a sandwich and soup for lunch and a hot meal at tea only under the new arrangements.

And critics said it was "pathetic" that the staff discount of just five per cent had been taken away.

The trust defended the move, saying most patients would not expect the choice of two hot meals a day and that it was not accepted practice in other hospitals.

But inquiries by the Lancashire Telegraph revealed that hot lunches were served in other North West hospital trusts.

The trust has to save an unprecedented £11.6million this year because of the funding crisis gripping the NHS and have warned jobs will go if this is not achieved.

Bosses' withdrawal of hot dinners follows on from the news last month that porters were being told to leave bodies on wards overnight as there were not the funds to have enough on duty to move them.

Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans said: "I am worried this is just a slippery slope.

"Are people next going to be asked to pack their own sandwiches before they call an ambulance?

"This is incredibly mean. It always amazes me that the cuts are never on the administration and bureaucracy but on things that directly hit people.

"Things need to be made as comfortable as possible for staff and patients.

"And you don't improve the morale in the workforce in the NHS by cutting back a piddling five per cent subsidy that is a token gesture in the first place."

Katherine Murphy, spokeswoman for the Patients' Association, said a well-balanced diet could assist patients' recovery.

She added: "Very often people don't like a cold lunch, they want something hot.

"It is a distressing way of saving money. To hammer the mistakes of senior management on to staff and patients is not right."

Unison spokesman Tim Ellis said staff and patients would be left dissatisfied.

He added: "It is another example of the reduction of healthcare for patients. A wide range of food is important for patients' recovery."

Tony Humphrys, chairman of Blackburn with Darwen Council's health scrutiny committee, said: "This is just penny pinching.

"When people go into hospital they want something substantial to eat.

"Sandwiches are not substantial enough.

"Just because other trusts are doing it doesn't make it all right.

"Staff are low-paid as it is and taking away their discount can only damage morale."

But Sue Chapman, head of trust facilities, defended the move and revealed that the new menus would be introduced later this year.

She said: "It is now accepted practice throughout most NHS trusts that the main meal is provided in the evening and that a light lunch consisting of a substantial hot soup, selection of sandwiches and a fruit or light dessert is provided earlier in the day.

"Most people would not expect to eat a full hot meal for both lunch and dinner in their normal daily lives, and we are confident that the new menu will fulfil the necessary dietary requirements.

"A decision was made by the trust in June to equalise the prices paid by visitors and staff for food served in the trust's restaurants.

"Prices are still very reasonable in comparison to retail food outlets and there is a wide selection of menus."

The move was backed by the official watchdog, the Patient and Public Involvement Forum.

Deputy chairman John Amos said: "I think a lot of people find they have too much to eat when they are in hospital compared to when they are at home."

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which manages hospitals in Chorley and Preston, Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals NHS Trust, Manchester's Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust, all offer discounts of up to 30 per cent to staff and hot dinners to patients.