UNIONS and professional bodies representing staff at Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup, were due to meet on Monday to decide their joint response to plans to axe 190 hospital posts.

First indications are there is unlikely to be major opposition to the job cuts and other cost-saving proposals designed to deal with the hospital's £15m debt, although staff at the hospital remain angry.

One senior Queen Mary's nurse said many felt betrayed by chief executive Kate Grimes.

She said: "Whenever she came round the hospital talking to staff, she always said nobody would end up losing their job. She said it would all be done by natural wastage.

"It is crazy. She is axing jobs which are desperately needed. In some areas, staffing is already so tight it is getting dangerous."

A second group of staff opposed to the Fit4Future proposals says reducing the skills mix on wards would result in more deaths. The group also accused the hospital of wasting thousands of pounds through incompetent managers.

It cited the failed reorganisation of women's services and day surgery arrangements.

The group said: "What would you require if you were in a hospital ward a sister, two or three trained nurses and two healthcare assistants or as it is now likely to be, a sister, two healthcare assistants and one trained nurse?"

Charles Brooker, chairman of the hospital's patients' forum, says it had been aware of the financial problems and the decisions which had to be made. But its main concern was Bexley continued to have its own hospital.

He said: "The actions of the management, led by the chief executive, appear to us to have been well judged and we believe to have been in the best interests of the hospital. They have our support."

More than 100 nursing and midwife jobs are among the cuts and they are represented mainly by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

RCN London Board chairman and steward at the hospital, Yvonne Dyer, says it was working with management to minimise the impact on patients and nurses.

The RCN said it had been warning the Government for some time of the impending crisis.

John Kelly-Chandler from Unison says he is concerned a disproportionate number of low-paid women would be affected by the job losses.

He says mismanagement was partly to blame for the financial crisis and said the Fit4Future consultation document, and the times scales it proposed, were totally inadequate.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, has announced up to 100 job losses and Lewisham Hospital is shedding 25 jobs.