NHS workers will assemble tomorrow to protest against a plan by health bosses to set up a subsidiary company to avoid tax.

Trade union Unite has warned that such arrangements could spark a “Pandora’s Box of dozens of Carillion-type meltdowns,” referring to the outsourcing and construction giant that went into liquidation last month.

Trade unions say Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s proposal to internally outsource 750 staff in estates and sterile services is a bid for VAT exemption.