Health services across the West Midlands are still £85 million in deficit despite drastic cost-cutting measures.

With the end of the financial year looming, a survey of health trusts has revealed that many are still millions of pounds in the red.

Hospitals which fail to balance the books before the new financial cycle begins on April 1 will be forced to pay back debts from next year's budget, leading to even more cuts.

The budget crisis has continued despite the intervention of Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt who ordered health managers to cut costs and sent hit squads to improve financial management in three West Midland hospital trusts.

Hospitals with serious debts include Good Hope, in B irmingham, which is £5.7 million in deficit; New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton (£5.1 million), and George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton (£7.6 million).

They also include the The Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and The Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, Shropshire, which have a deficit of £9.9 million between them, and the Stoke hospitals managed by University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust, which owe £18 million.

The figures were included in health authority papers published in December and January, and compiled by the Conservatives.

Across the country, they show a collective deficit of more than £900 million, although the figure could fall before April 1.

Hospitals have taken a range of drastic measures to try to cut costs. Good Hope will close two wards, lose 50 beds, and an operating theatre, while University Hospital of North Staffordshire is to axe 1,000 jobs.

Ministers were urged to deal with the crisis by angry MPs but Health Minister Jane Kennedy said the cuts were needed.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Staffordshire MP Paul Farrelly (Lab Newcastle-under-Lyme) said: "Locally, of course, the cuts are devastating. They include 573 nurses, midwives and auxiliaries, and one in five of all nursing staff."

Charlotte Atkins (Lab Staffordshire Moorlands) blamed former managers at the Stoke hospitals.

She said: "Is it right that patients and staff should suffer cuts as a result of poor past management?"

Ms Kennedy told the Commons: "The steps that the trust is taking to restore its financial balance are worthy of support, especially where they will not worsen patient services and may even improve them in the long run. Certainly that is the intention."

Birmingham MP John Hemming (Lib Dem Yardley) blamed reforms in the NHS, including health trust mergers and changes to the way funding is allocated.

He said: "There is far too much change. The well-organised managers who can add up are reeling with the pace of change, and we get more and more change."

But Black Country MP Adrian Bailey (Lab West Bromwich West) said the NHS was improving and the deficits were only a small proportion of total budgets.

"Far from being in crisis, for the fifth year running, our health service is treating more people, reducing waiting lists and improving patient care.

"Funding has increased from £34 billion in 1997 and it is projected that it will be £92 billion in 2007/08."

He added: "We have an NHS funding deficit that is a tiny proportion of the whole budget."