A £7.5 MILLION loan awarded last week to the loss-making trust which runs Kidderminster Hospital has to be re-paid by the end of the month.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust borrowed the cash so it could continue paying wages and bills until fresh money became available with the start of its new financial year on April 1.

A trust spokesman said money had come from elsewhere in the NHS to make up for the £7.5 million which has to be repaid to the West Midlands South Strategic Health Authority.

"It means the trust will not be left short of £7.5 million, although the money that replaces the loan will have to be repaid to the NHS, but no period has been fixed," he said.

The spokesman said the trust will have to make savings to prevent a deficit occurring again, but refused to comment on whether the repayment of the £7.5 million would result in more extensive cuts.

Wyre Forest's hospital campaigning MP Dr Richard Taylor said as the trust was one of the most expensive in the country for providing services there should be plenty of scope for rationalisation rather than cutting services.

"This is absolutely vital because in the next 18 months fixed tariffs for NHS procedures will be brought in and if the trust's charges are not down to the levels allowed nobody will buy their services and it will be in a terrible mess," added Dr Taylor.

The trust runs the troubled £96 million Worcestershire Royal Hospital and the Alexandra Hospital at Redditch as well as the downgraded Kidderminster Hospital.