HEALTH services in York and Selby could face funding cuts as the organisation in charge of NHS spending claws back £14.7 million.

Bosses at Selby and York Primary Care Trust are currently £9.4 million in debt and predict that by the end of the 2005/2006 financial year they will be £28 million in debt if they do nothing.

So a three-year recovery plan has been drawn up to clear the deficit, which will see it slashed to £13.3 million by 2005/2006 and cleared by 2007/08.

The situation could mean less funding for York Hospitals NHS Trust, which is also striving to meet targets and just managed to break even this year after a £2million forecasted deficit.

But Phillip Grant, the PCTs director of finance, stressed patients would not suffer.

"We will be maintaining all levels of care provided to patients across Selby and York already," he said. "That doesn't mean they will be provided in the same place."

Bosses plan to reduce admissions to hospital by ensuring appropriate care is available in community-based settings, such as Archways intermediate care centre.

"Where it is absolutely right for patients to be in hospital then we are not going to stop that," he said. "But we will also be looking at health care services that are more cost-effective than admitting them to hospital."

Mr Grant said the PCT would not seek to cut York Hospital's current level of income, but would identify savings based upon the growth rate dished out each year.

But he admitted it could result in the hospital receiving less in the future.

York MP Hugh Bayley said: "The Government increased the PCT's funding by 8.3 per cent but they increased their spending by almost nine per cent to enable York Hospital to cut waiting times for inpatient and outpatient treatment."

Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh urged the Government to explain why North Yorkshire's cash-strapped health authorities had financial black holes of up to £52 million.

She claimed South Tees NHS PCT was £22 million in debt, Selby and York PCT was £6 million in debt, Tees, East and North Yorkshire Ambulance Service was £4 million, and Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority has a £20 million overspend.

She said: "This is putting severe pressures on local services, which are being forced to look at ways to cut costs, and shows up Government claims to have increased frontline spending as farcical.

"If we accept that the Government has increased health spending, it is of little use to local people if this money is spent on more bureaucrats and managers."

Jim Easton, chief executive of York Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "We are working with the PCT to seek to ensure high quality hospital services continue for people in the future and that national standards for hospital care continue to be met."

Updated: 10:16 Tuesday, May 24, 2005