A DOZEN hospital staff have been told they may too old to work and unions fear cutbacks in the cleaning department.

Between 12 and 15 members of the cleaning team at Torbay Hospital have received letters telling them they are coming up to the national retirement age of 65 and will have to leave unless they apply for an extension.

Hospital bosses have been unable to say if the staff will be replaced or not.

Unions are investigating if South Devon Healthcare Trust bosses have been targeting cleaning staff which they say could have dire consequences on hygiene standards and the fight against the spread of infections.

But hospital spokeswoman Caroline Hill said that the hospital's retirement policy had not changed in five years.

She said: "It will depend on heads of department whether staff who leave are replaced."

A member of staff who did not want to be named said in a letter to the Herald Express: "Staff are not happy as many of them would like to stay on until they are 70."

She claimed: "People don't like the way it has been handled so quickly. At the moment it's quite bad because in the domestic department they don't have enough staff as it is."

The letter added: "Bosses at the Trust should let people work who want to work past 65."

Sue Orwin, a Unison representative, said: "What we are challenging the trust on is whether there has been a blanket decision for the over 65s.

"The trust has said 'no' but clearly within the cleaning department a number of people have been served their notices.

"We're trying to get to the bottom of this."

Mrs Orwin said there was no provision in the law at the moment for people to work beyond the national retirement age unless it was agreed with trust management.

Mrs Hill said there were currently 54 members of staff aged over 65 who had successfully applied for contract extensions beyond the legal retirement age.

However, Mrs Orwin said that cleaning staff not being replaced or having their contracts extended could pose problems in terms of keeping hospital wards and equipment clean.

She added: "If they don't replace these staff it could have an impact on hospital infection. Why do they seem to be targeting the cleaning staff in particular?

"If because of financial pressures they're looking at the over 65s first then there is little to go by because the law is not quite set. In this case it appears they may have been too hasty. If that's the case we will ask for equity."

Mrs Hill defended hospital policy. She said: "As people come up to their 65th birthday we send them a courtesy letter warning them of the retirement age.

"Staff can apply for an extension which is discretionary.

"The number of letters we send only depends on the number of staff reaching retirement age.

"It is purely coincidental that so many letters were sent to members of the cleaning department."