COUNCILLORS have called on the Government to write off the massive NHS debt in our region, claming failure to do so would be "financial suicide".

At a full meeting of City of York Council, Strensall representative Madeleine Kirk said the new North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) was being hampered by past problems.

The council passed a motion calling on the Secretary of State for Health to treat the PCT as an exception case, and to scrub the debt.

Coun Kirk said: "Unless the debt is written off, the PCT will be forced to implement and maintain serious cuts in health services across the county."

She referred to The Press's revelation yesterday that patients in our region are receiving poorer care than their neighbours in East Yorkshire or Leeds.

She said: "The postcode lottery of healthcare is really hitting North Yorkshire and York now, and the burden of inherited debt has made the disparity much more marked.

"I believe that the proposed cuts in services will have an unacceptable impact on the quality of health care available and fear that it could undermine government and PCT objectives of reducing hospital admissions.

Referring to the PCT's problems, Coun Kirk said: "The historic debt inherited by the PCT totals £37.1 million. This is a residual debt built up within the four predecessor trusts, with the former Selby and York PCT contributing much of the deficit, and consolidated when the new PCT was formed.

"It seems to be financial suicide to establish an organisation with such a colossal burden to carry. At the very time the Trust should be focussing on the future, managers are hampered by the problems of the past."

Coun Sue Galloway seconded the motion and later said: "The fact that there appears to be no logical reason other than financial why some treatments have been stopped in North Yorkshire and York is worrying. Indeed, I understand that some of the treatments stopped in North Yorkshire are available just down the road in Leeds, part of the same strategic health authority.

"I remain doubtful that this rationing of treatment will produce the savings anticipated."

The motion was passed unanimously.