COLCHESTER General Hospital’s ruling trust has spent £130,000 on new offices for its chief executive, chairman, director of operations and six other staff.

Bosses said the move from the old trust headquarters to the main hospital building – about 200metres away – was important to improve the visibility of directors to staff and patients.

The figure includes redcorating and designing fees, new flooring, removal fees, the price of connecting computers and furniture.

It also includes the cost of creating a medical handover room for doctors and a meeting room for governors.

Staff and union members have criticised the expenditure – the equivalent of a two-bedroom terrace in north Colchester – at a time of NHS cutbacks.

It is claimed the work cost more than expected because it involved adapting clinical areas.

One worker, who did not want to be named, said: “Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust omitted a whole series of components in the move.

“The trust got it wrong. Windows needed to be altered and electrical systems were altered.”

Isaac Ferneyhough, Unison secretary for the hospital, said: “At a time when the hospital is trying to save money, the costs should have been better considered before leaping into this.

“There are redundancies being made in the trust at the moment and over the next two years it is estimated 30 posts will go.

“It’s a lot of money to spend to move people into what was a clinical area. In an office the size of the chief executive’s, there are currently four people.

“I’m sure those people would be very pleased to have such luxurious accommodation as our chairman and chief executive.”

Barbara Rush, the hospital’s Unite union representative, said: “I can see why they wanted to move into the middle of the hospital, but my big bugbear is the cost of this refurbishment at a time when we are supposed to be saving £14million.

“If we don’t save the money we need to save, there is more risk of redundancies.”

Andrew Armour, the trust’s finance director, said human resources staff at Essex County Hospital would be moving to the directors’ former offices.

That would save the trust cash by not having to pay for maintenance and running costs at Essex County Hospital.

He added: “We will save more by getting human resources off the Essex County site, so even if we were doing it to save money, which we aren’t, it would be worthwhile.

“We are doing it so we are closer to patients and staff.”

In a statement the hospital trust said: "The decision to move into part of the old children’s Unit was taken by the board of directors and has been welcomed by clinicians.

"The work involved adaptations to what had previously been clinical areas, which had included sluice rooms and infrastructure for medical gases, and was therefore not straightforward.

"The total cost of the project was £130,000 – less than one per cent of the trust’s capital budget of £19.5million for 2011/12."