A campaign to save the jobs of specialist nurses and other staff at Ipswich Hospital has been launched by the Evening Star, which has reported that a cash crisis has left many facing the axe.

The paper says that Trust bosses want to axe up to 40 per cent of the hospital's 84 specialist nurses who care for patients with conditions such as cancer, epilepsy and diabetes - and so it has begun a petition calling for health bosses to think again.

Editor Nigel Pickover said: "While the Government spends billions of pounds on much-loathed wars and "peace-keeping" in Iraq and Afghanistan, here at home our nursing angels are being slapped in the face.

"Ipswich Hospital and its dedicated managers are in the front-line – being told they have to claw back money – and do it now.

"Their only quick route to financial stability is by cutting jobs – but we say this is unjust and unfair and being done with indecent haste."

Petition forms are being published in the paper and online, and the Evening Star plans to take it to health bosses in Whitehall to show the depth of feeling against the loss of vital jobs.

It is also highlighting personal stories from readers who have been cared for by specialist nurses at the hospital.

Nigel added: "We have watched in astonishment and horror as nursing posts have been slashed, services decimated and as morale has gone through the floor - while all the time the Government and its minions are telling us things are getting better in the NHS.

"We have decided to fight for the brilliant staff at Ipswich Hospital - headlining on the specialist staff but not forgetting other vital workers who are under threat as Christmas approaches.

"The hard-pressed management at Ipswich is being run ragged by brutal, impossible, cost cut targets and needs time to turn things around.

"They need the help and support of the primary care trust to do this and we shall be watching for the PCT to join in the fight to save these posts. If the PCT doesn't help in the fight the people of Suffolk will never forgive it."

Hospital bosses say plans to reduce specialist nurses could save £1.3m and claim they have far more specialist nurses than other hospitals of a similar size.