HEALTH bosses are taking legal advice as they attempt to get five Winchester hospital consultants to repay a six-figure sum paid to them by mistake.

Negotiations between the senior doctors - one of whom is now retired - and health managers are still unresolved, months after the Daily Echo revealed the overpayment of £290,000.

A paper to the Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust today reports that the issue has yet to be resolved.

It states: "The British Medical Association (representing the five) has indicated that repayment of a substantial proportion to the trust would not be acceptable."

The paper said that the trust has sought legal advice to resolve the dispute, which arose from human error in the payroll department.

The hospital proposes to claw back some 85 per cent of the money.

Some members of the trust board say that the consultants should repay 100 per cent of the overpayment.

The embarrassing dispute comes as the trust prepares to make scores of workers redundant to finance a multi-million-pound savings plan by April 2006.

Yesterday, Pam Smith, chairman of the Joint Trade Unions at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, said: "We want everyone to be treated the same.

"Other staff would be expected to pay back straight away.

"It is simply not fair not to pay the money back.

"If other staff do, so should consultants."

The payroll mistake lasted for several years and was spotted only in the spring by outside auditors.