"Zero hours' contract for Airedale Hospital staff is criticised

And the use of the contracts, at Airedale NHS Trust, is sharply on the rise, up from 49 staff affected just three years ago.

Labour’s health spokesman Andy Burnham described such an increase as “worrying”, warning that standards of care could be at risk.

Zero-hours contracts offer no guarantee of any work, only provide pay for any hours that are worked and set out no specified working patterns, he said.

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said it had a policy of not using the contracts.

But Airedale Trust hit back, insisting many of the ‘bank’ staff on its list were “inactive”, which meant they had worked no shifts for at least six months.

It said: “They are not contracted and therefore have no obligation to work for us.

“We are implementing a project this year – in 2013-14 – to update the system and remove the inactive assignments, which will reduce the current figures.”

Nevertheless, there is growing concern about the increased use of zero-hours contracts, held by 67,000 NHS staff and 300,000 social workers.

They are popular in the retail, catering and health sectors, where having staff on permanent stand-by is particularly useful.

But critics argue they are being denied basic employment rights, allowing their bosses to impose low wages and punish staff by reducing rotas.

This week, a report for David Cameron on healthcare assistants, by journalist Camilla Cavendish, warned about the impact on the quality of care.

Mr Burnham said: “It is the result of a crude and mismanaged efficiency drive, where standards of care will be sacrificed for savings that will, in time, prove to be a false economy.

“Good care cannot be provided on a ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ basis. Services and staff need to be there for people day in, day out.”

The highest number of zero-hours contracts at Airedale are held by health care support workers (24), followed by staff nurses (11) and healthcare assistants (six).