More than 300 public servants could be laid off in Victoria’s health sector as top bureaucrats prepare to swing the axe in a bid to balance the state budget.

A video obtained by AAP shows Department of Health secretary Euan Wallace outlining the scale of health sector cuts after the May budget flagged up to 4000 job losses as part of a plan to unlock $2.1 billion in savings.

Professor Wallace said the health department had to pull its weight as the government seeks public service workforce savings of $175 million in 2023/24 and $544m in 2024/25.

“So $50m in annual savings from FTE (full-time equivalent) ongoing and that’s equivalent to about 305 FTE,” he told an all-staff forum on Tuesday.

“We are looking to make those changes across this year and then enduring into future financial years.”

Late last month, Prof Wallace and Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas gave a presentation to a cabinet subcommittee on how the department planned to play its part in implementing the saving measures.

A three-person health finance board, featuring Prof Wallace and officials from the treasury and premier’s departments, will also meet regularly to find “efficiencies” within the sector.

“We’re a third of government expenditure so there is a significant task ahead of us if government is going to meet its budget targets,” he said.

Community and Public Sector Union Victorian secretary Karen Batt said Prof Wallace had essentially “spilled the budget beans” on a sustained program of cuts to health and community services.

“This extent was not disclosed to parliament’s budget oversight committee recently and we were told the savings were to be one off, protect services, and be this year only,” she said in a statement on Monday.

Ms Batt said the cabinet subcommittee briefings showed the cuts were a done deal despite the government being required to act in good faith under its industrial obligations.

“Fancy being so out of touch with the demands in health that you set up a razor gang and call it a health finance board and still believe in a vision that Victorians will be the healthiest people in the world,” she said.

A Victorian government spokesman said frontline services would not be affected by the changes and denied it had breached its industrial obligations to the union.

“The Department of Health and our health services provided an incredible emergency surge response during the pandemic but we are now rebalancing the public service to pre-pandemic levels,” he said.

“We know these transitions can be challenging which is why consultations are continuing.”

Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier questioned how the government could declare the job losses would not lead to deteriorating patient care in hospitals and health services.

“They need to explain where they’re going to find the efficiencies, which is code for cuts,” she told reporters.

– AAP