HEALTH bosses facing a £1.5m budget deficit said their financial problems are threatening the way services are provided in Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale.

The Primary Care Trust, which is responsible for GPs and community nurses, has revealed an overspend of £728,000 so far this year. If spending continues in the same way, a deficit of £1.5m is forecast.

"This is blowing us out of the water," finance director Chris Dixon said at a board meeting yesterday.

"Although this is down to fulfilling our statutory obligations, we do need extra help", he added.

The Trust, which was only set up earlier in the year, is still trying to find its feet and chairman, David Peat, warned against incurring further financial losses.

Giving a warning for the future, Mr Peat said: "It is not so much a case of bad management, but I think we are looking at a radical examination of how services are delivered in the future.

"It is almost like rite of passage that people expect to be dealt with in a certain way.

"But in future we have to say 'could these services be provided in some other way?'"

Mr Peat added that pressures from the Department of Health were affecting the way the Trust is run.

"The real trick is how to deliver what the government wants and what we and our local people want."

At the meeting held in Rossendale Town Hall, the chairman of the Community Health Council, a patients' watchdog, sought assurances from the board about patient care.

Don Pacey, retired teacher from the Rossendale Valley, said: "I don't know how people are going to respond to this.

"It is up to the board to make sure that they do not get into financial difficulty."

Expressing his concerns about possible cutbacks, Mr Pacey added: "I would not like to see either any services that we have got benefiting patients to be affected, or reduced, or ended, and I would not like to see any of their future plans that are supposed to benefit patients having to be cut back."

The Trust is considering a number of options to avoid the £1.5m budget loss, including the sale of capital assets and applying for extra money from the Treasury.