A hospital spokeswoman confirmed yesterday that 45 beds no longer in use at the hospital were being kept at the storage facility in the old Coats Patons building at South Launceston.

The beds come from the medical ward 4D and surgical wards 5A and 5B, which were closed before Christmas as the hospital struggled to find ways to meet the $28 million budget savings demanded by the cash-starved state government this financial year.

Hospital staff were told that the beds had to be locked away so that they could not be used even in an emergency.

Options for storing the beds on site were explored but no suitable space could be found, the hospital spokeswoman said.

Opposition health spokesman Jeremy Rockliff said that the off-site bed storage highlighted how foolish it was for Health Minister Michelle O'Byrne to cut the number of beds at the LGH.

``It is a slap in the face to the community to find out that the minister is actually paying money to put the closed beds in storage,'' he said.

The purpose-built, imported hospital beds are expensive.

The LGH spokeswoman said that it was important that they were stored in a clean, secure environment.

At least one of the empty wards has already been given another use.

The former 4D medical ward will be used for outpatient medical oncology when work starts on the redevelopment of the Holman cancer clinic in March, made possible by a federal government grant.

That work is expected to take nine months.

In another budget blow for the LGH, it was also confirmed yesterday that money for public eye operations this financial year ran out last November less than six months into the year.

Eye surgery including cataracts has been contracted out by the LGH to the Launceston Eye Hospital for many years but was one of the first areas to be identified for cost-cutting when the extent of the hospital's budget saving requirements became known.

Launceston Eye Hospital specialist Nicholas Downie said that about $1.2 millin a year to manage the cases on the eye surgery waiting list had been cut to $600,000. That means that there are already nearly 900 people on the waiting list for surgery in the North.