BEDS on the children's wards are under threat as Basingstoke hospital bosses battle to get to grips with a looming financial crisis.

This week, it emerged that the hospital, which is facing a £3 million deficit, has had to close a high dependency unit for very sick patients - just months after it opened.

Beds on the children's floor are also under threat as bosses look at different ways of cutting the high bill for agency staff who earn three times as much as their NHS counterparts.

The staffing problem has been caused by a chronic national shortage of specialised NHS nurses a situation made worse in the Basingstoke area by the high cost of living.

The four-bed high dependency unit for patients who have had serious surgery has closed for three months until October 1 while managers mount a recruitment drive.

The remaining four-bed HDU on the medical floor will now be a combined unit - taking both surgical and medical cases - until the recruitment campaign has been successful.

High dependency beds are for seriously-ill patients who do not require ventilation or one-to-one attention in an intensive therapy unit.

Hospital directors were told at a meeting this week how overspending in adult medicine has risen to £271,000, of which £94,000 relates to the high dependency units.

The budgetary position was described by finance director Chris Ellarby as "very serious", with the hospital facing a £3 million year-end deficit.

He said high expenditure on agency nurses in child health would also have to be "addressed".

He told the meeting: "We have found it extremely difficult to recruit specialist nurses. We used agency staff and hoped it would be better.

"We had to make the decision not to use so much agency staff. It was not sustainable."

Mr Ellarby said agency staff had made up eight of the 20 nurses needed to run the HDUs.

Hospital trust chief executive Mark Davies said: "It is not a decision we have taken lightly. It is not ideal but compared with last year there are still more critical care beds."

Acting medical director Dr Roland Guy told the meeting: "It is very hard to work with staff paid three times more than you. It is demoralising."

Martyn Dell, the hospital's director of planning, told The Gazette that patients who would not now be treated at the HDU would be cared for on the general wards or in the ITU, according to need.

He said: "We have not had to turn anyone away from the hospital, but it has put pressure on the intensive therapy unit."

Mr Dell warned that bed closures on the children's floor "could not be ruled out".

He said: "We are looking at all the options. It is a difficult issue and we are balancing it with our responsi-bility to the community and staff.

"This is not about disinvesting in child health. We are looking at pre-serving core services."

He said there are now 20 vacancies for trained child health staff - part of a national problem.

Consultant paediatrician Dr Roger Walters told The Gazette: "I would be concerned about sustainability during the winter months if there is no access to agency nurses.

"You have to have the ability to admit people locally. I hope they will find an appropriate solution."