Severance payouts to staff at a Bradford health trust as part of the controversial shake-up of the NHS has cost the taxpayer almost £2.7 million.

According to figures compiled by the Department of Heath, a total of £2.692 million was paid out to staff at Bradford and Airedale Primary Care Trust in 2011/12.

As part of the controversial overhaul of the NHS, PCTs are to be abolished in April, and replaced by GP-led groups which will then be handed massive NHS budgets to commission treatment and services for their area.

Critics have already expressed concern that some of the staff laid off by the PCT will be rehired in the new organisations as doctors will not have the necessary management skills to commission the work.

A spokesman for Bradford and Airedale PCT said that in the 2011-12 period there were 56 staff redundancies.

A breakdown shows £530,000 was paid out for compulsory redundancies and £2.162 million for “other departures” which the DoH said included voluntary redundancies and early retirement.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “These are one-off costs. By investing in these changes we will be able to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and free up extra resources – £5.5 billion during this Parliament and £1.5 billion every year thereafter – for patient care.”

The figures, the result of a Parliamentary question by Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham, come ahead of a Parliamentary debate on health.

Shadow health minister Jamie Reed said: “David Cameron's top -down reorganisation of the NHS was kept hidden from the public before the last general election. It has no support, no mandate and no legitimacy.

“More importantly, it has taken £3 billion of taxpayers’ money away from NHS services and it keeps on taking money out of each local NHS.”

Labour said it would repeal the Act if it won the election.

The changes are part of the Health and Social Care Bill which faced a rocky path through Parliament, and saw nurses, doctors and midwives speak out about the plans.

In an unprecedented move, Prime Minister David Cameron “paused” the legislation after widespread opposition.