FEARS are growing that NHS services in the region will be unable to cope with winter pressures, with the NHS trade body today warning of even more severe challenges than last year.

Patients are likely to see more cancelled operations, long waits in accident and emergency and sub-standard care, despite medics’ best efforts, an NHS Providers report said.

And despite doctors in the North-East complaining last year that they were ‘fighting a losing battle’, the report said this year would be even tougher.

MPs in the region last night called for the Government to channel even more money into the NHS when the Budget is unveiled next week.

NHS Providers said that last year NHS trusts and frontline staff made "extraordinary efforts" to maintain services for patients.

This was in spite of a relentless rise in demand and the worst flu strain in seven years.

But it said that, nevertheless, for many patients the quality of care fell short of what is expected.

Alex Cunningham, MP for Stockton North, said North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust was facing a £28m black hole "because it had tried to put patient care ahead of budget concerns" in recent years.

And he called on the Government to reinstate the recently-scrapped nursing bursary which was making staff shortages even more acute.

Darlington MP Jenny Chapman said: "It is not just winter pressure any more – the pressure on the NHS is year-round.

"It is beyond frustrating for patients to have operations cancelled that they have prepared for. There is just not enough capacity in the system, and that is all year round."

The report, which is based on published national data and the views of trust leaders, suggests factors that mean this winter could be even worse include a continued acceleration in demand for care, which has been significantly outstripping planning estimates.

And greater pressure across mental health, community and ambulance services combined with higher levels of staff vacancies, would restrict the ability to prioritise urgent care.

Social care is now in a weaker state, even when the recent extra £240m in funding is accounted for.

But NHS Providers welcomed measures by trusts to improve care and the extra social care and buildings and equipment funding from Government.

The report calls on NHS national bodies to acknowledge and plan for the scale of extra, more complex demand that health and care services face.

It said last winter patient care ''fell short' in some cases as pressure mounted.

In the North-East emergency departments saw as many as ten per cent more patients last December than the year before.