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Health trust debts more than £1bn
Every NHS trust or primary care trust in England was asked for its current financial situation, whether it was in debt or had money in the bank.

The total for the whole country showed a debt of £1.07bn - despite the NHS receiving record funding of £76.4bn for the financial year 2005-2006.

It has led to patient services being affected as trusts try to cut spending.

Some trusts revealed they had closed beds, wards or entire hospitals, others had cancelled operations and many said they had cut staff levels. ...

...The John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford announced in December that many patients would not be able to have the same heart therapy received by Prime Minister Tony Blair, with only life-threatening conditions still being treated.

The withdrawal for up to 100 patients of cardiac ablation therapy, to control an irregular heartbeat, was blamed on the need to cut Oxfordshire's £15.1m deficit. ...

...The Royal College of Nursing said earlier this month it feared more than 3,000 health service jobs could be lost through cost-cutting efforts which were having a "direct and detrimental" effect on patients.

Unison, the trade union which represents many nurses, said newly-qualified staff were struggling to find jobs because posts were being left unfilled.

And the NHS Confederation, which represents more than 90% of NHS organisations, said trusts were under too much pressure to cut deficits quickly and needed to be given "space" to deal with debt in a way which had patients' care at heart.