WHEN hospital chaplain Alan Powers reached retirement age last month, he offered to stay on.

Conscious that there was no obvious Free Church replacement at the University Hospital of North Tees, in Stockton, the Methodist minister said he would be prepared to serve for up to another 12 months.

After passing a medical at the hospital, Dr Powers, 65, was looking forward to continuing the pastoral work he has carried out for the past five years.

Then came the bombshell.

Only a fortnight after he was given the all-clear to carry on, he received a letter from the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust informing him that because of the current financial crisis, employees reaching retirement age were not being kept on.

The trust, which runs the university hospitals of North Tees and Hartlepool, is struggling to contain what is predicted to be a £15.5m overspend.

The trust has imposed a recruitment freeze and warned its 5,500 employees that some staff may be made redundant.

Dr Powers, who retired from his ministry on the Stockton Methodist circuit in August, said he was astonished to be told that his services were no longer needed after he was initially told to carry on.

Dr Powers, who spoke with up to 70 patients a day as part of his part-time chaplaincy, said he was saddened that financial difficulties have led to cuts in the spiritual services provided to needy patients.

"This would appear to be an autocratic decision based purely on finance," said Dr Powers, who said the other Anglican, Catholic and Charismatic members of the chaplaincy team were upset at the decision.

Trust chief executive Ian Dalton said: "We are proud of our chaplaincy service and we are committed to continuing to fulfill the requirement of meeting all the spiritual needs of all the patents staff and visitors.

"However, it is no secret that the trust is in a difficult financial situation and action is being taken across the board to address it.

"We have a vacancy freeze in force and obviously my first concern is to protect the jobs of doctors and nurses as well as not filling posts when they become vacant, unless it is critically necessary for the continuity of patient care. One aspect of what we are doing is to ask people to not work past their normal retirement age."