Patients at Kingston Hospital have been left dumbfounded after it was announced that savage cuts will be made by April to recoup a £7.5m drop in income.

Unions, health campaigners and Richmond's MP Susan Kramer said such cuts would be devastating, and are likely to include job losses and the closure of beds and operating theatres.

Kingston Hospital chief executive Carole Heatly announced the news in a letter to staff on Friday, September 1. She said the hospital faced a potential £7.5m fall in income and announced it would cut spending to avoid overspending.

Just two weeks ago, the hospital trust said it planned to close 30 beds and relocate 27 staff in a bid to save £500,000. It has yet to reveal how it plans to break even by April.

The hospital's woes are a result of spending cuts by Kingston Primary Care Trust (PCT), which pays for care at all Kingston's NHS centres from dentists to GP surgeries.

Like most London PCTs, it is fighting huge financial deficits, currently standing at £9m.

In July it set itself a target of saving £15m over two years. But it is a shock to most that £7.5m of that saving is being sought from Kingston Hospital as early as April.

Ms Kramer said: "You cannot keep running the health service with people telling hospitals on the one hand to increase services and deal with patients more quickly, then turn around and cut services two years later."

Nora Pearce from health workers' union UNISON said the cuts would be a "double whammy" of reduced staff and reduced services.

"This is a huge amount of money," she said. "The staff are very, very worried. This is a morale disaster. There will have to be public consultation."

Some of the hospital's drop in income is a result of a sharp decline in the number of GP referrals.

The Kingston Clinical Assessment Service (KCAS) was set up in April to encourage more patients to be treated at GP's surgeries. It was expected referrals would drop by about five per cent, but early estimates suggest they have dropped by 15 to 20 per cent.

Geoff Martin from pressure group London Health Emergency (LHE) said he expected to see a "raft of panic cuts", adding: "You can't save these sums of money without having a disastrous impact on front line patient care."

A Kingston Hospital spokesman said it is "working closely" with the PCT to achieve the savings.