AN investigation by The Northern Echo has discovered that more than  1,000 NHS jobs have vanished in the North-East since controversial reform plans were announced in 2010.

At the time the  Government announced its intention to radically reorganise the commissioning - or purchaser - side of the NHS there were 2,238 managers and administrators in the North-East.

When the new streamlined structures emerged in April the headcount in the region was down to 1,185 - a reduction of 1,053 posts.

The Government said its vision was to "reshape healthcare so that it is more patient-centred, led by health professionals and focused on delivering world-class health outcomes".

But unions say the shake-up has led to an NHS "brain drain" that has deprived hospitals of highly experienced officials who ensured patients received the right treatment.

One of the aims of the changes - which did not involve hospital and mental health trusts - was also to shift NHS resources to the front-line and away from backroom adminstration.

But Trevor Johnston, head of health for the public sector union, Unison, said the reforms had been "a wrecking exercise" which would damage the NHS and adversely affect the entire North-Eastern economy.

"The end result is that they have a service which does not have enough people to do the job and it has cost them £3bn to do it," said Mr Johnston.

As part of the reforms the Government decided to abolish primary care trusts and strategic health authorities.

In their place the Government created a network of GP-led clinical commissioning groups supported by commissioning support service units and NHS England, the body nationally accountable for the outcomes achieved by the NHS.

The abolition of PCTs probably had the biggest impact on job losses.

In County Durham and Darlington  alone the abolition of the PCT saw 380 managerial and administrative jobs lost.

This compares with the combined number of 65 new posts created at the successor CCGs in Darlington, North Durham and Durham Dales, Easington and Sedgefield.

Similarly, the number of jobs lost when the Tees PCT was abolished was 293. The number of posts created by the new CCGs on Teesside is 28.

A total of 210 jobs were wiped out when the North-East Strategic Health Authority was abolished in April.

The largest surviving NHS employer in the region on the commissioning side is the North of England Commissioning Services which has 690 staff and NHS England which has 229 posts in the North-East and Cumbria.

Nationally, the Department of Health has already disclosed that from an April 2012 baseline of 40,574 full time equivalent staff, 32,204 got new jobs in the NHS, 3,841 left through "natural attrition" and 2,394 were made redundant.

Mr Johnston, whose union opposed the reforms from the start, said: "What has happened is that the regions NHS has lost a massive amount of experience, knowledge and intelligence, people who have spent years commissioning healthcare."

He said health commissioning was "extremely complex" and the job losses would be "detrimental" to the service.

"The Government said the cost of all this was about £1.5bn but our reckoning is that it cost about £3bn. So they havent saved anything, they have destroyed a service and loads of people have lost their jobs."

The Unison official said a significant number of people are now redundant, on the dole and claiming benefits instead of working for the NHS.

"I would argue that they are much better off using their skills and knowledge in the service of the country rather than watching day-time television," he added.

*A small number of highly specialised public health workers who have transferred from the NHS to local authorities were not included in this survey.