THE head of a cash-strapped hospital trust has called for “discussions at the highest level” to ease the crushing burden of private finance initiative repayments.

This week the South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the 1,000-bed James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough and the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton, warned of potential jobs losses because of a need to make cuts of £91m within three years.

Professor Tricia Hart, chief executive of the trust, told The Northern Echo that the huge annual cost of repaying the £155m cost of modernising James Cook University Hospital in 2003 was hampering the trust’s ability to meet national Government savings targets.

“We need to have discussions at the highest level, which is what we are doing,” said Prof Hart.

“We were one of the first and it has brought a fantastic environment for patients and staff but it is unaffordable. It was always unaffordable and it is becoming even more unaffordable.”

The chief executive said the trust needed Government support “to make sure we have got a sustainable future".

Since 2011 the trust has saved £66m – about four per cent of its annual £550m budget – but staff have been told the rate of savings must be stepped up to catch up with other NHS organisations.

In the current financial year the trust is due to save £21.9m but this must rise to £40.1m next year and by another £29m in 2016-17.

The chief executive said the trust would make renewed efforts to trim costs and streamline services but she stressed that this would not be at the expense of front-line nurses.

“It is really important we protect our front line staff and we are currently recruiting for extra nurses,” she added.

Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald, who is seeking an urgent meeting with Prof Hart, said the situation “is deeply worrying” and showed that the NHS “is not safe in this government’s hands".

Peta Clark, operational manager with the Royal College of Nursing said the scale of the cuts was “unprecedented” and redundancies “are looking inevitable".

She added: “The reality is that the PFI costs of the hospital are also making it increasingly difficult to make the sums add up. Central Government has got to step up to the plate, and address these very real and very large financial problems, because frankly, the local NHS trust can not do this on its own.”