As previously reported on Liverpool Indymedia, many people will be sacked and many unnamed patients will die, because Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust have been ordered to claw back fourteen million pounds over two years.

According to the trade union Amicus, the Trust has indicated more than 200 jobs will go at the hospitals in two years, because the government has ordered Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust to claw back fourteen million pounds over two years.

Amicus and other unions will mount two protests next week after the NHS trust revealed it will sack more than 80 staff in coming months.

But the union says hospital officials have failed to state what savings will be made by the redundancies, or give assurances that patient care will be unaffected.

Amicus official Debbie Brannan last night urged the trust to look at other options.

"The protests are the beginning of our campaign to try and reverse these decisions. Our message to the Trust is clear - we won't stand for these job cuts."

Amicus members will gather at the gates of Southport hospital on Monday and at Ormskirk next Friday, between noon and 2pm.

However, the bigger question remains: why do hospital trusts have to pay all this money back? Nationwide, the deficit stands at £500 million, which is just 1.5% of the government's annual defence budget.