A union has strongly criticised a decision to send confidential hospital patients' notes to South Africa to be typed.

Mid Sussex Unison branch secretary Mark Sargent said his members did not support the move by Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust.

The trust has employed Cape Town firm Global Secretarial on a temporary three-month contract to type up notes of patients at the Sussex Cardiac Centre in the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton.

The trust said the move was to clear a backlog of notes and could also save it £150,000.

The trust is struggling financially and needs to make £34 million in savings this year if it is to balance its books.

It said it had problems recruiting locally and insisted South African staff involved were fully qualified English-speaking medical secretaries.

The trust said it had followed European Commission guidance on sensitive data being processed outside the EU.

Mr Sargent said staff had become aware of the move a few weeks back and challenged trust management over it.

He said it was not the first time the trust had decided to send notes abroad and the issue had been raised a year ago.

He said trust board members at the time had assured staff representatives that the practice would be stopped and if the situation changed there would be a full consultation.

He said: "Clearly, this has not happened. Obviously, considering the financial situation it was inevitable that outsourcing would be looked at again but the staff side position is that we will always oppose it, just like we are opposed to any creeping backdoor privatisation and undermining of UK public service jobs.

"Outsourcing to Africa, India or wherever does both."

Mr Sargent said staff were concerned about issues regarding data protection and also believed the main reason was to save money and not just to clear a backlog of notes.

He said: "The overriding factor is cost-cutting. Yes there is a backlog but that is because we do not have enough established posts. There is no excuse to outsource this work, apart from cost-cutting and therefore it is the predominant factor."

Mr Sargent said he was interested to learn that a recent audit had found that trust secretaries were supportive of the scheme because none of his members were.

He said: "Unison is opposed to the current use of outsourcing to replace medical secretaries.

"If the trust feels there is a case for outsourcing, they should have presented appropriate documentation for consultation prior to going forward with the pilot.

"This would have allowed for proper scrutiny of the claims and proposals.

"Instead, they have brought this in via the backdoor based on cost implications without adequate consideration of other issues, including patient safety and data protection."