Patients hit as trust plunges into the red

Sweeping health cuts have been ordered in the capital after one of London's major NHS trusts plunged £9 million into the red.

Patient care is being cut back to balance the books - causing outrage among doctors.

Emergency measures include shortening the time patients stay in hospital, axing emergency beds, closing a mental hospital, cutting back follow-up appointments and scrapping services for Aids patients and vulnerable youngsters.

They will affect services at hospitals including Charing Cross, St Mary's and Chelsea and Westminster.

The financial crisis is at the Kensington and Chelsea Primary Care Trust (PCT), which organises NHS care for 190,000 residents and thousands of visitors. It emerged after London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children said a £1.7 million deficit had forced it to cancel 100 operations and the Evening Standard's disclosure that the capital's hospitals have a combined £100 million black hole in their finances. The future of the NHS is now firmly at the top of the political agenda following cash problems, the MRSA scandal and the battle over Cheshire pensioner Margaret Dixon's shoulder operat ion that was cancelled seven times.

At a board meeting of Kensington and Chelsea PCT, cuts of five per cent "across all headings" were ordered. Documents passed to the Standard reveal that the plans include:

Evening Standard revealed last year how financial problems at Kensington and Chelsea PCT had forced bed closures at Hammersmith Hospital

The cuts have angered doctors who say some of the savings will cost more in the long run. Consultant psychiatrist Dr Jose Catalan said: "Why the trust got into this mess is not clear. Some of the cuts have not been well thought through."

Dr Peter Carter, the chief executive of the Kensington and Chelsea Mental Health Trust, said his department had not overshot its budget but was being penalised anyway.

"These cuts could put people's lives at risk," he said.

In a statement the Kensington and Chelsea PCT said: "We regret having to take these decisions but we must balance our budget."