Hospital staff claim they are still in the dark about the future of their jobs after meeting health chiefs.

Bradford Royal Infirmary staff met chief executive of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust David Jackson yesterday to find out what the Trust's £11.3 million cash crisis means for them and their patients.

Like their colleagues at St Luke's Hospital, who met health chiefs earlier this week, they were told the Trust had imposed a recruitment freeze.

It means any unfilled posts will not be advertised and temporary staff - including agency nurses - were no longer being hired. Both measures are in a bid to avoid compulsory job losses.

The packed meeting was also told staff would receive regular weekly updates on the situation. A Trust spokesman said: "A lot of people were keen to be kept in the loop so we will be producing these updates for staff to enable them to be kept up to date and line managers to raise any concerns."

Staff said they welcomed the updates but said they were still in the dark about job losses and were worried about the effects of the recruitment freeze on themselves and patients.

After the meeting chairman of the Staff Medical Committee Dr Philip Bickford Smith said: "People are obviously concerned about possible effects on work and the provision of services but we have reassurances that it is in our power to work more efficiently. The Trust was still vague about job losses. There was a lot of concern about staffing levels."

Union bosses met hospital chiefs in a separate meeting earlier in the day.

Afterwards UNISON shop steward Steve Sutton said: "I am anxious that the job freezes do not turn into job closures. The Trust has said it will try to avoid compulsory redundancies as much as possible. UNISON is not happy about natural wastage and voluntary redundancies because it still leaves staff having to pick up a huge body of work left behind. An over-stretched staff is going to be even more stretched because of the recruitment freeze."

A nurse, who asked not to be named, said staff and patients would lose out because of the cuts being brought in.

"I know this is affecting patient care," he said. "I am tired of going home at night knowing that some people have not had the care they deserve and should get, such as not being adequately turned to prevent pressure sores. A recruitment freeze will not help."

An American firm of trouble-shooters was sent in by the independent NHS regulator Monitor to check the books of the Trust after it emerged it was £4 million in the red. It was later revealed it had a projected defecit of £11m. Monitor and the Trust have now drawn up the recovery plan.