Fifty staff at York's hospital laundry are to lose their jobs after health chiefs awarded the contract to a Derby firm.

York NHS Trust announced today it had decided to close down the laundry at Clifton, and issue redundancy notices to about 50 people who are employed there.

Laundry, including bed linen and staff uniforms, will now be sent to Derby to be cleaned before coming back to York.

Deputy chief executive George Woods admitted it was a "sad day " for the laundry and its employees, some of whom had been with the trust for many years.

"Despite all our efforts, we have experienced continuing difficulties in achieving adequate production levels. This has meant us losing money.

"In order to ensure that we are providing the best possible service to patients and that public funds are being spent most effectively, we decided to put the laundry contract out to tender.

"Many committed people have worked very hard to make the laundry a success. It is a shame that it has not worked out."

He said the trust would make every effort to find alternative employment for as many redundant employees as possible.

The laundry building and site will now be sold.

Richard Bayley, York branch secretary of Unison, criticised NHS chiefs for its management of the laundry, which just a few years ago was hailed as a money-making venture for the trust.

He said: "Since then it has fallen to pieces.

"There has been a large amount of mismanagement and a large amount of temporary agency staff.

"A publicly-owned facility has now fallen to bits by neglect.

"We need the laundry. Its been run down from a position where management issued a large release a few years ago saying the trust was signing external contracts an making money for the trust.

"Now the situation is it is losing money hand over fist three or four years later.

"We feel it has been run down and that's a poor reflection on how services are run in York."

Mr Woods denied there had been mismanagement of the laundry or that it had been allowed to run down.

Considerable efforts had been made to secure outside contracts, he said.

There had been problems both with production levels and costs.

It was not yet known how many alternative jobs could be found for staff.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.