A HAMPSHIRE hospital is to axe more than 300 jobs and close two wards to solve a financial crisis, health bosses said today.

Managers were this afternoon breaking the news to staff at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.

Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust chiefs said 181 posts would go by the end of March 2007 and a further 129 by the start of April 2009.

Two wards will be closed with a reduction in 56 beds. Victoria Ward will close in October and a second in December.

Over the next two and a half years the trust will be reducing its bed capacity by 125 to claw back a £15m overspend.

The Daily Echo revealed the trust, which has an £83m turnover, was in financial crisis three weeks ago.

A statement by the trust said: "The trust will seek to re-deploy as many staff as possible in order to keep compulsory redundancies at an absolute minimum."

The trust said financial constraints meant cuts in jobs had to be made. New ways of working, notably more day surgery, meant fewer beds are needed.

The cuts are the part of the Fit for Future programme initiated in the summer.

The statement added: "The changes that we are going to be implementing are about improving our productivity and will not impact upon the services which we provide our patients."

The savings will allow the trust to balance the books this year for the first time in years.