CUTS in health services and job losses could be on the cards after health bosses revealed they face a £16.1million shortfall in funding.

Spending forecasts for North Hampshire Primary Care Trust and Blackwater Valley and Hart Primary Care Trust have shown both will dramatically overspend by the end of March 2006 if they continue to provide the current level of service.

The trusts are responsible for providing doctors, dentists, pharmacies and opticians across the Basingstoke area. The shortfall could mean there is not enough money to pay its health professionals.

Health bosses are now struggling to find ways of coping with the projected cash shortfall and have said scaling back services and laying off staff could be the only way to try to bridge the massive funding gap.

North Hampshire needs to find an extra £9.3m on top of its budget to provide the current level of service and Blackwater Valley and Hart needs £6.8m.

Fears are growing that both care trusts, which merged last year and are now managed together, will run out of money in January or February if they continue spending at the current level.

Earlier this week, the first phase of savings was revealed -but this will only help save £1m across the board. More plans to stop using agency staff and to review the trusts' management structure, jobs and services are in the pipeline.

The trusts are also reviewing the funds provided to Basingstoke hospital to see if money can be saved there.

Richard Samuel, deputy chief executive of the care trusts, said: "The financial position is increasingly challenging for us. We need to get rid of the gaps we are filling with agency staff.

"Last year, our workforce grew by 20 people. We have got to make sure, in growing our workforce, they are the right people in the right places.

"We need to recognise that we came together as a management team last year, so, inevitably, there is duplication across the management level. Without singling anyone out, we need to make sure we are not duplicating in any areas.

"It's impossible for us to rule out redundancies and it's impossible for us to say if there will be cuts in services. We may need to stop doing some things but that would be after discussion with local people."

About the money provided to Basingstoke hospital, Mr Samuel said: "In the short term, we are working with the hospital trust to see if we can find ways to save and manage with the resources we have got."

The health service crisis is not exclusive to Basingstoke and Deane. Across the whole of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, trusts are spending £43m more than they have been allocated by the Government.

One problem is that funding for the county's care trusts is 20 per cent less than in other areas of the UK because it is a healthy place to live. For every £100 allocated to other care trusts, Hampshire's trusts only get about £80.

It is a situation that is increasingly worrying to doctors at the grass-roots level.

Dr Raffi Assadourian, who works as a GP at Old Basing Surgery, in Linden Avenue, and at Odiham Health Centre, in Deer Park View, said all GPs are looking at ways to try to tackle the problem so that surgeries can carry on as normal.

"We are in a situation where, potentially, at the current rate of referrals, the money is going to run out in January or February next year," said Dr Assadourian, most of whose patients have their treatment paid for by Blackwater Valley and Hart PCT.

He added: "We will not get paid, district nurses and health visitors will not get paid and there will be no money in the system. You cannot run a practice if there is no funding.

"As GPs, we are extremely concerned and we are working hard to do whatever we can to find alternative ways of treating patients and changing patient pathways.

"The current thinking is that more and more should be done in general practice rather than referrals to hospital.

"The Government has to do something. It's not just the local care trusts. The problem is across Hampshire and the South."

Maria Miller, the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Basingstoke, is concerned about the lack of money being allocated to health services in the borough.

"This is another example of how the money is not getting through to the frontline and we are going to see cuts in services," she said. "We are paying more but the service is simply not getting through."

And Jen Smith, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Basingstoke, said: "Although there has been more money going into the health service in recent years, it has been underfunded for so long that it's still not enough."

Paul Harvey, Labour's parliamentary candidate for Basingstoke, said: "These issues have got to be addressed and I will be lobbying to make sure they are.

"People in Basingstoke deserve good GP services and many local people have commented to me recently how good the facilities are.

"The quality of services in Basingstoke is good and the quality of care at the hospital is also good. My prime priority is to sustain that success. We have got to keep investing in public services."