The head of the largest health union in the UK has warned Life on Mars syndrome is rife in the NHS.

Unison health chief Karen Jennings said Seventies style marketisation, competition and privatisation was taking over the NHS.

She was speaking to delegates on the first day of Unison's annual health conference taking place at the Brighton Centre today.

Ms Jennings called on the Government to put a stop to private companies profiting from the NHS or face the possibility of losing health workers' support.

She said: "It may be 2007 but Life on Mars syndrome is alive and thriving in today's NHS.

"The Government has invested heavily in the NHS but the real benefits are felt by the private companies, accountants, management consultants, lawyers, finance companies and shareholders who have creamed off an exorbitant £25billion from the NHS.

"The Seventies may look cool on TV but under the Government then the NHS suffered from appalling under-investment and contracting out of cleaning, catering and services to the lowest bidder.

"However back in the Seventies it would have been considered crazy to send patients' notes to India to have them typed - not in today's NHS.

"Private companies are targeting hospitals with deficits offering free trials and promising big cash savings if they outsource their medical typing to countries such as India, Pakistan and South Africa.

"This makes no sense and is putting patients' lives at unnecessary risk.

"It is time to ditch Seventies and move into the 21st century."

Hospitals in Sussex have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds employing expensive financial consultants to help them get back on track, a move that sparked anger from unions, especially when the consultants recommended sweeping job losses.

Medical secretaries at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust were also outraged when the trust consulted on moves to send patients' notes abroad.

The independent treatment centre for orthopaedic patients in Haywards Heath has also come in for criticism from unions, who said the NHS should have been given the funding and opportunity to run it.

More than 1,500 delegates from across the whole of the UK have come to Brighton for the conference, which ends on Tuesday.