Anger erupted today after Tony Blair pointedly blamed Bradford hospital bosses for the Trust's £11.3 million cash crisis.

The Prime Minister refused to accept any fault lay in the decision to turn the Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's into Foundation hospitals.

In an interview with the Telegraph & Argus he said: "The question is, is it Foundation status that has produced the problem, and my answer to that would be 'No'.

"Are there problems at the hospital, which is why the chairman has been replaced? Yes."

But Bradford West MP Marsha Singh insisted Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust's financial troubles had emerged since the city was chosen to spearhead the Government's flagship health reforms a year ago.

The Labour backbencher said: "Yes, there were faults with the management even before the Trust gained Foundation status.

"But the situation has worsened significantly since - so the Foundation hospitals policy is not blameless.

"If there is nothing wrong with Foundation hospitals, why are others suddenly finding themselves further and further overdrawn?"

The troubled Bradford Trust has been forced to make drastic cutbacks, including shedding hundreds of jobs and closing wards. Monitor, the independent foundation hospitals watchdog, forced chairman John Ryan to resign after it emerged the financial problems had been highlighted by top Trust bosses within weeks of gaining Foundation status.

On Monday, the T&A reported that the Trust faced the embarrassment of being downgraded from a three-star to a one-star trust.

But yesterday, Mr Blair said that controversial Foundation hospitals - which sparked a massive Labour rebellion last year - was blameless, and the fault lay with other "problems" at the Trust.

But he praised the work of ordinary staff at the two hospitals, saying: "I think it's important that we don't ignore also the very good work that has been done by the majority of doctors, nurses and other staff at the hospital or the fact that there is a significant extra amount of money that has gone into Bradford hospitals.

"But, you know, it's like with city academy schools, when people say to me, 'Well, here's a city academy school that's not doing so well,' I say, 'Well, it doesn't mean to say the whole policy is wrong.'

"There are also Foundation hospitals, which there are in many parts of the country, doing superbly well.

"In the end, all Foundation status is about is giving them greater freedom.

"I think the problems that there have been in Bradford are rather different from any of the problems to do with the fact of being granted foundation status."

Asked if Bradford should lose Foundation status if it only gained one star in the Department of Health's performance tables, the PM said: "You say the watchdog is unaccountable. Actually, the whole point is to have somebody independent who says, 'Do you still qualify for the criteria for Foundation status?' That's a decision that, rightly, shouldn't necessarily be made by Government."

But Mr Singh said: "The watchdog is not accountable. Every time MPs try to get answers from the Department of Health, we are told it is nothing to do with ministers."

Bradford's MPs have demanded an urgent meeting with Health Secretary John Reid to discuss the problems engulfing the city's hospitals.

* Hospital bosses have back-tracked on plans to axe Bradford Royal Infirmary's gynaecology day case unit, revealed by the T&A last month, but will now slash half the beds on another gynaecology ward - leaving staff there fearing for their jobs.

The Trust planned to move the 16-bed gynaecology day case unit in ward 25 to an inpatient gynaecology ward (ward 12) but has now decided to keep the day case unit but to axe 15 beds on the 30-bed gynaecology ward instead.

Around 30 staff were told this week some would be able to stay or find work elsewhere in the Trust but redundancies may need to be considered.

One member of staff, who asked not to be named, said: "The mood is very sad. I never thought I would see the day where nursing staff were facing re-deployment at best and redundancy at worst.

"We deal with a lot of emergency admissions including women who are having miscarriages. You need experience for that and we could lose that experience."

The Trust said the decision was taken after local Primary Care Trusts, which commission its services, indicated an increased demand for day surgery on the day case unit in the year ahead.

A spokesman said: "Ward 12 is not at full capacity and the reorganisation will help the Trust channel its resources more efficiently for patients. The beds removed would have been taken over by ward 25 in the previous plan. We're confident these changes will ensure we can continue to deliver high quality care efficiently to our patients."