Speculation that nearly 30 jobs could be axed at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital has come under fire.

And health chiefs criticised a story in yesterday's Royal Gazette which revealed the full recommendations of a report on staff restructuring.

Dismissing the story as "alarmist and sensational'' hospital spokeswoman Kendaree Burgess-Fairn said: "We feel the article is not reflective of the actual process.'' "It is true that the report recommended the phasing out of Assistant Directors of Nursing and Assistant Unit Coordinator positions and the amalgamation of maternity and paediatric wards.

"It is also true that a number of opportunities will be created in nursing education, home health care and ambulatory care.

"Change is difficult and we recognise that. Our people have been anticipating these changes and recognise that health care is changing and that we cannot afford to ignore the signs.

"This reorganisation opens the door for new opportunities. In today's world no job is guaranteed for life. It is the successful organisations that invest in retraining and skill upgrades in its staff.'' Bermuda Public Service Association general secretary Edward Ball also gave reassurances that no jobs at the hospital would go. "As far as I know it would be too much of a hardship for that number of people to be made redundant,'' he said.

"It would be better to redeploy them and train them. We are satisfied that we can minimise redundancies by re-training.

"But this does not mean that we will not be monitoring the process.'' See Editorial: Page 4