PATIENTS in York will not get the new doctors' surgery and pharmacy they were promised after local health chiefs were forced to pull out of a deal due to their financial troubles.

York councillors have reacted with anger to the news, which they said was further proof that the debt crisis facing North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) was having a damaging impact on patient services.

In 2006, the developers of a major £12 million office complex in Heworth Green, York, made an agreement with the PCT that the cramped facilities at Minster Health Surgery, in Monkgate, would be relocated within the new development.

But hopes for a new modern surgery were shattered by revelations that the PCT was £48 million in debt and The Helmsley Group has now applied to City of York Council to allow change of use from a doctors' surgery to offices.

Coun Paul Blanchard, who represents the Heworth ward on City of York Council, said: "It is disappointing that patients and staff at Minster Health are not going to be getting new state-of-the-art premises for their surgery.

"It shows how the PCT's financial situation is continuing to have an impact on the services they are able to offer to the residents of my ward.

"I know from speaking to local residents how much they wanted that new surgery, and people are rightly disappointed."

Richard Peak, director of The Helmsley Group, confirmed they would no longer be able to provide a new site for Minster Health, which caters for 6,000 to 7,000 patients.

He said: "The surgery had hoped to be able to use more modern premises and when we started doing the commercial development we thought we had an agreement with the PCT for a relocation of Minster Health into our building.

"But then the bad news came out about the PCT being heavily in debt and they put on hold any plans for relocation of doctors' surgeries and pulled out of the negotiations."

A spokesperson for the PCT said they still had long-term plans to re-locate Minster Health.

She said: "We are aware of the concerns of Minster Health and have provided some additional space for the short-term to enhance the environment for patients and staff.

"We are currently assessing the PCT's entire estate to identify and prioritise our future capital development.

"The PCT is committed to providing high-quality community services and we will continue to work with our health care colleagues to maintain the high quality of care currently offered by the surgery to the local community."