The move will mean a lack of local jobs at the Conquest says the MP.

Mr Foster reacted angrily to the recent revelation that East Sussex Hospitals Trust has begun a six week trial outsourcing secretarial work to India.

He said: "In uncertain economic times public money should be focused upon creating and retaining jobs in the Rye and Hastings area. I shall be contacting Ministers to demand they intervene.

"I know the Trust say this is just an experiment with non confidential scripts but I don't want it to become permanent. Who knows, if savings are the only concern I'm sure we can find a lot of consultants and chief executives on the Indian subcontinent willing to work for a lot less than their UK counterparts.

"So much decision making has been delegated to a local level it is now difficult for Ministers to intervene but I shall be tabling a Parliamentary Motion and asking other colleagues to sign. We need to stop this practice before it spreads across the public sector."

The MP also suggested there were alternative to outsourcing work to India: "I supplement the work of my own secretary by outsourcing typing to a company called 'Dictate Now'.

"The difference is that all their operatives are UK based. I believe the NHS could set up its own virtual typing pool of homeworkers thus creating British jobs with public money."