HEALTH chiefs must have enough time to clear York's £23 million deficit -if patients are to avoid losing essential services.

That was the warning today from York MP Hugh Bayley as the three most important people in the NHS in North Yorkshire try to thrash out critical budget problems.

The MP revealed he had met the Chief Executive of the new Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority, Margaret Edwards, to argue that sufficient time must be given for the deficit to be tackled, if essential services to patients were not to be cut.

He said he had arranged a meeting next month between Mrs Edwards, himself, York Hospital Chief Executive Jim Easton and the chief executive of the new North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust, Janet Soo-Chung, to discuss the latest situation.

He said the former Selby and York Primary Care Trust had spent beyond its budget in the last year on things such as eye and hip operations due to a lack of financial control.

This meant the area had had more services at the expense of other parts of the region which had stayed within budget, and it was inevitable that there would be some impact on patient services as the deficit was tackled.

He said it was because of the concerns of organisations such as Age Concern about the possible impact of cuts that he had been working hard to try to reduce the impact as much as possible.

He stressed that the Government was spending more money than ever before on the NHS in York to improve services to patients, for example through the opening of a new day unit. He also claimed waiting lists and times were considerably better than they had been in the days of the former Conservative Government.

Mr Easton said he welcomed the intervention of both Mr Bayley and Selby MP John Grogan in ongoing discussions about what was a "complex and difficult" matter.

"I share their objectives in contributing to the PCT's financial restructuring without adversely affecting important services for the community we serve."

A spokesperson for NHS Yorkshire & The Humber said today: "The SHA is working closely with North Yorkshire and York PCT, along with every NHS organisation in Yorkshire and the Humber with a financial deficit, to try to ensure that financial risk is managed appropriately without impacting upon patient care."