A TOTAL of 300 temporary workers and agency staff posts are to be cut by hospital bosses as they try to save millions of pounds in the coming year.

Managers at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust plan to make savings of £2m in its workforce as part of its financial recovery plan for 2006/7 to save £16.7m, of which it has identified £10m savings.

But managers have stressed there will be no redundancies and some of the savings will be made through natural wastage.

The trust, which runs hospitals in Maidstone, Pembury and Tunbridge Wells, is currently operating with 700 empty posts.

Director of corporate recovery, Jim Hope, told the trust board meeting on Tuesday: "There was some serious angst about these 300 posts, but I would say they are posts, not people."

He added: "I think we can cover the targets that we have set ourselves without having the human casualties."

A report on the recovery plan to the meeting said: "The trust will not be seeking redundancies and the combination of vacancy review, attendance management, staff turnover, service transformation and robust controls for temporary staffing will be sufficient to attain this target."

The plan included other plans to cut staffing costs by reducing the numbers of temporary locums, overtime costs and an "aggressive approach" to staff sickness.

The trust also plans to review its services as part of savings plans, including improving patient discharge, reviewing where services are based, ensuring services are on the right hospital.