Health trusts in Birmingham and the Black Country are set to go £23 million over budget.

Figures presented to the board of the Strategic Health Authority show that hospitals, primary care trusts and the ambulance service will run up the deficit between them.

Birmingham MP John Hemming has written to Health Ministers asking them to investigate. And he has tabled a Commons motion calling for an "urgent and public review by the Government of the financial status of the NHS so that urgent remedial action can be taken".

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But an SHA spokeswoman said health services in the region as a whole would stay within their budgets this year.

Surpluses in some health trusts could be used to offset deficits in others, she said, while plans had been drawn up to save £11.3 million.

The figures show that Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton, is expected to run up a deficit of £12.8 million.

Good Hope Hospital has a projected deficit of £4.5 million, while Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, which runs City Hospital in Birmingham, has a projected deficit of £5.1 million.

Mr Hemming said reforms to the NHS had also placed primary care trusts, which run GP surgeries, under pressure.

He said: "The more time that is taken to resolve this problem, the harder it will be to resolve it. The Government needs to move quickly to both tell everyone what is happening and also to work out how to resolve it."

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has already written to 20 Midland health trusts, warning they are headed for "significant" deficits.

As a result, some have taken dramatic steps to save money.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has unveiled plans to downgrade the Alexandra Hospital, Redditch, as part of a package designed to save £20 million a year.

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust revealed earlier this month it was to shut down a ward at Walsgrave Hospital, in Coventry, as part of a £7.8 million packaged of costcutting measures.

Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust and Good Hope Hospital have imposed a recruitment freeze on nursing staff in a bid to save money.

Last month in the Department of Health reported that a quarter of trusts nationwide were in deficit, and the total shortfall came to £718 million.

A DoH spokeswoman said: "The NHS budget has doubled since 1997 and all areas of the country have seen significant improvements in services.

"It is up to the local NHS to design its services so they best meet the needs of the local population."

Hospitals or other health trusts which went over budget would get their deficits paid by trusts with money to spare, she said. But they would have to pay the funds back, even if it took many years.

She said: "Any deficits of NHS trusts need to be matched by underspends by other NHS bodies each year.

"In the next year, NHS trusts which overspent should make a surplus in order to ensure that other bodies can utilise underspends from the previous year.

"In circumstances where a surplus cannot be generated in the following year, strategic health authorities can agree to a recovery plan which phases the recovery of deficits over a number of years."