THE director of a national organisation that represents most NHS trusts in England said hospitals might run out of money to treat patients.

News that a North-East hospital trust has been told to find £80m in savings prompted the director of The Foundation Network, which represents 200 foundation trusts, to warn that the health service was facing a crisis if a risky gamble to shift resources from hospitals to community care did not work.

Foundation director Sue Slipman told The Northern Echo that the Government’s strategy was fine provided the demand on hospitals reduces.

She said: “If the demand does not go down, the hospitals will continue treating patients and they will not get paid for it. They will be in crisis.”

Ms Slipman was reacting after the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, which runs hospitals in Darlington, Durham City and Bishop Auckland, said it had been told by the Department of Health to save £80m in four years.

It represents a reduction in the overall budget of the trust of 16 per cent.

Ms Slipman said all NHS trusts were being asked to make similar savings, which was going to be a huge challenge and involve a large number of risks. She said her network had made it clear to the Department of Health that some of the risks were extremely worrying for patient care.

Ms Slipman said the Government wanted fewer people going into acute hospital care and more people treated in the community.

She said: “That shift now has to happen. The problem will come if it does not. The theory is fine but, in reality, if some organisations lose funding, it may not be fine.”

Ms Slipman said: “We are going to see quite a lot of hospitals reconfiguring their services to survive.

“They might have to close down some services to provide other services.”

She said the NHS should try to be more efficient, but that there was a question whether budget reductions at that level were achievable.

Stephen Eames, the chief executive of the County Durham and Darlington trust, said savings would allow more money to be invested in “front-line care”.

The Department of Health has said reform in the NHS was a necessity rather than an option.