IT'S official - North Yorkshire's primary care trust has the worst debt in the country.

North Yorkshire and York PCT's dire financial position was on the table at a top-level board meeting yesterday where chief executive Janet Soo-Chung confirmed its level of overspend was the worst in the National Health Service.

She said: "We are now the most overspent organisation in the whole of the NHS.

"What that means for now and for the foreseeable future is we will be the subject of intense scrutiny.

"This really is a very serious position for us to be in."

She added: "Even though we are in a very severe deficit position, I do want to reiterate that the mission of the PCT is to serve patients. That objective is paramount."

The Press has already reported that the PCT is heading for a debt of £45 million at the end of this financial year.

But the trust has introduced a series of measures and service cuts it hopes will reduce its debt by £10 million to a figure of £35 million by the end of March.

These include suspending a wide range of procedures, such as IVF unless the woman wanting to have a baby is approaching 40, vasectomies and treatments for bunions and ganglions.

Doctors have reacted angrily to the measures, which were formally ratified by trust managers at yesterday's meeting.

Some of the measures have been branded unethical and doctors have warned that cutting corners in healthcare could put lives at risk.

Trust bosses are now working on a five-year plan on how they will stabilise their finances.

Trust chairman Johnny Wardle told the meeting that patients would not be put at risk.

He said: "We are absolutely not about putting patients at risk, and on that we could not be more positive."

Dr David Geddes, medical director for the former Selby and York PCT, told The Press outside the meeting, held in Harrogate, that some of the procedures which were being suspended could be permanently unavailable, but some could be brought back. He said one of the suspended procedures - MRI back scans - would now be available to patients if it was necessary to diagnose what was wrong with them.

In the meantime, GPs could refer patients for one of the other suspended procedures if they felt their case was exceptional. These patients would be considered by a special "prior-approval" panel, the meeting was told.