Winchester health bosses have saved huge sums in the past year and have broken even, a meeting heard.

However, managers are pressing on with preparing to make scores of staff redundant.

Winchester and Eastleigh Health-care NHS Trust and the Mid Hampshire Primary Care Trust are still £4m in the red.

More than £8m of debt has been paid off by health chiefs in Winchester during the past 12 months, and more savings are being proposed, including reducing the wage bill of both organisations by five per cent within a year.

The finances of the trusts were discussed at a board meeting at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital.

Mike Fulford, acting director of finance, said that the trusts had saved £8.4m in a year to cover historic shortfalls in funding, and the early signs were that both organisations had broken even on running costs.

The number of staff at both trusts fell by 48, making a current total of 3,036 employees.

Both trusts are now aiming to reduce their wage bills by five per cent, and are having talks with unions, the meeting heard.

Health chiefs are yet to decide how many redundancies will be needed and in which departments.

The target to reduce wages comes after the news that five senior doctors were overpaid by the Winchester trust. Between them, the consultants received £290,000, due to a payroll mistake that went unnoticed for several years.

The meeting heard that letters were sent to the doctors on Tuesday to ask for the money paid in error to be returned.

Board members are also facing a financial headache over the new treatment centre at the RHCH. It was expected to cost £11.1m, but at the meeting Mr Fulford reported that the project was about £1.2m over budget.