Airedale Hospital

On Tuesday afternoon a spokeswoman for the international food management business Sodexo confirmed the company was involved in discussions with workers likely to be affected.

But she could not officially confirm how many jobs might be lost and when the first redundancies could happen.

Earlier this week, Philip Turner, director of service delivery at Airedale NHS Trust, said: “As part of the contracting out of the catering service at the hospital, staff were made aware that there may be some possible redundancies and that these may not all be announced at one time.

“The consultation process on the initial phase took place at the start of the contract and Sodexo is now consulting with staff again about the potential redundancies.”

In March of this year an Airedale spokesman conceded the contract to privatise catering could involve “a very small number of redundancies”.

In September, Airedale’s director of business development and performance, Ann Wagner, said Sodexo was implementing a £2 million scheme to upgrade the kitchen and restaurant facilities.

The move to privatise hospital catering by passing it to Sodexo was fiercely resisted by catering staff, union representatives and local politicians.

They staged an unsuccessful but high profile campaign, which included demonstrations and a petition signed by hundreds of members of the public.

They argued that contracting out the service would endanger the jobs of more than 60 employees in the catering department. They also said it would lead to patients receiving poor quality meals.

Hospital managers said the measure was the only way of funding improvements to the kitchens to ensure they met modern health and safety standards.

Keighley MP Ann Cryer has previously described the decision to privatise as “absurd”, saying it made no sense to sell off a potentially profitable hospital asset.