CUTS in services are being forecast at one of the region's hospitals after it was revealed it faces a £9.2m deficit for the new financial year.

The figure for Harrogate District Hospital, in North Yorkshire, includes a £4m loss of income from Craven and Harrogate NHS Primary Care Trust (PCT) in the coming financial year compared to the past 12 months.

Plans are being made to cut beds and reduce the number of operations, but so far no job cuts have been announced.

News of the trust's plight was given in a report presented to the board of governors by recently-appointed financial director Jonathan Coulter.

Mr Coulter said the hospital has been set challenging financial targets and savings would be made as a matter of urgency.

During the coming financial year, pay rises will cost the trust £1.6m, £3.9m is being set aside for increases in heating and lighting bills and there will be a sharp increase in the cost of drugs.

The year ahead will put further pressure on hospital finances when the PCT will cut the number of patients being sent to Harrogate. This will amount to a loss of income for the hospital of £7m.

Meanwhile, the wider picture across North Yorkshire remains bleak for the NHS.

It has been revealed that the county-wide PCT is already in debt to the tune of £46m and will need to find £22m to replenish its reserves.

The hospital has made no decision about whether wards will be closed. There had been fears at least one ward would be shut down amid the growing cash crisis.

Harrogate District Hospital takes its patients from a wide area of North Yorkshire including, Ripon, Knaresborough, Boroughbridge, Pateley Bridge.