Hull locals fight to save hospitals

Organisers said their aim was to "send a clear message to this Tory-led government of millionaires that we are not prepared to accept savage cuts to the local NHS."

Hull and East Yorkshire Hospital Trust faces £99m cuts in its budget by 2017.

In the summer hospital consultants wrote an open letter to the trust warning that patient care will be "critically eroded" as a result.

Cash-saving plans include losing 300 acute beds and axing the specialist neurology ward at Hull Royal Infirmary.

Save our NHS Hull and East Yorkshire co-chairman Danny Marten said: "These cuts demonstrate a massive failure on behalf of a government which was elected to 'cut the deficit, not the NHS.'

"These cuts are ideologically driven and are an example of the Tory contempt agenda towards working people in action.

"The people of Hull and East Yorkshire are paying for the unfettered greed of the fat-cat bankers.

"They wrecked the economy and ordinary people are paying the price."

Union officials have warned that staff morale at hospitals run by the trust is at "rock bottom," with staff reluctant to speak out over what is happening for fear of disciplinary action.

The campaign group is running a petition but a spokesman said a number of hospital staff who wanted to sign had been too afraid to do so.