This announcement comes in the wake of damaging revelations over Christmas that the mergers of 22 Local Health Boards in Wales with NHS Trusts to create seven new bodies had not led to the loss of a single manager - although their jobs had disappeared.

The Welsh Assembly Government has admitted that 56 NHS executives whose jobs have gone are being kept on without a permanent role. These include five former chief executives, nine medical directors, 12 nurse directors and 16 other directors. The cost is estimated to hit £3.7m a year.

Mr Cairns has been among AM's challenging the way reorganisation took place on October 1. Mr Cairns has repeatedly asked about the number of management posts being retained in the new health boards compared with the old trusts and local health boards they replaced.

He said that the shake-up would be a pointless cosmetic exercise unless an axe is taken to managerial posts to save money.

"Labour created a bureaucratic nightmare when they replaced the five old area health authorities with the 22 health boards in the first place," he said. "Reducing them down to seven restored some sanity to the system, especially when they merged with the existing NHS Trusts.

"But the savings that we expected by scrapping this ludicrous set-up have not been realised because people are being kept on and paid. Every one of the new boards is facing a budget deficit this year so they should not be forced to keep on paying managers who are surplus to requirements because it suits the ideology of Health minister Edwina Hart who is a former trade union officer."

Mr Colman has now told Conservative health spokesman Andrew RT Davies that he had monitored the NHS re-organisation and would continue to do so as the boards finalise the corporate structures.

His letter went on: "I am paying particular attention to the way in which the NHS is controlling its management costs and my staff have been collecting detailed information on senior executive posts and salaries pre and post re-organisation. I will be reviewing this information at the end of January with a view to issuing a report on this particular aspect of the NHS reforms."

This statement has been welcomed by Mr Cairns who has been probing the structure of the new Abertawe Bro Morgannwg Local Health Board which now runs all hospital and primary health care services across an area stretching from Swansea and Gower to Bridgend and the Western Vale.

"It is time that somebody looked at what is going on," he said. "Jobs for the boys in the NHS is something we cannot afford at a time when the new boards are facing huge budget deficits. Just two - Cardiff and Abertawe alone face a £90m shortfall. A bloated public sector is no longer acceptable.
"Labour created a monster and although it has paid lip service to dismantling these cumbersome structures, its no redundancies policy is unsustainable.

"It can only be paid for by cutting back on beds and front line services. What do people want - more managers or more doctors and nurses?"