NO service or staff member is safe from the axe as Fareham and Gosport health chiefs launch a desperate bid to balance the books.

Finance bosses at Fareham and Gosport Primary Care Trust will be looking at every penny they spend in an effort to make up a £5m deficit.

That could include doctors, nurses and dentists, with a particular emphasis on out-of-hours services like doctors surgeries and the accident treatment centre at the Royal Hospital Haslar.

John Wilderspin the trust's new chief executive, has ordered his staff to take a closer look at the books. He has warned there could be cuts to services or staff.

Fareham and Gosport PCT is ending the crurrant financial year with an overpsend put at £4.8m.

Mr Wilderspin told the Daily Echo: "We need to take a close look at our finances and make sure we are living within our means. That's just good discipline which any organisation needs to apply.

"We will be looking at every area of expenditure and every penny we spend.

"There will be a systematic approach thinking through the consequences. We need to break even and get out finances in order, but we're not going to do that in a knee-jerk way.

"Lots of other health organisations have similar problems to ours. The NHS is improving and developing, but in doing that we have to make sure that we're living within our means."

Phil Wood, south-east regional secretary for Unison, said: "It appears that if management fail to balance the books, the people who suffer are the patients and our members.

"They desperately need to talk to staff and find out what can be done and what needs to be done before making any decisions."

Among a list of cost-cutting ideas are possible plans to move administration staff from bases at Fareham Reach and Waterlooville to one central location.

Urgent reviews have also been launched into ways to reduce the number of people needing to be admitted to hospital.

Finance chiefs also need to find more cost-effective ways of using existing sites including the doomed St Christopher's Hospital in Fareham and will limit new investment.