HEALTH chiefs were grilled on the state of the financial crisis across the county's hospitals, including the Alexandra.

Bosses from Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust - which announced 720 job cuts in April in a bid to stop debts spiralling to £60m - spent more than two hours fielding questions from concerned members of the county council's health overview and scrutiny committee.

Top of the agenda was how patient safety could continue to be top priority at the Alexandra Hospital, in Redditch; Kidderminster and Worcestershire Royal hospitals, when the proposed redundancies are being made to save £16m.

John Rostill, chief executive of the trust, remained adamant that clinical safety would remain at the top of the agenda but still could not say where the staff cuts among the 5,500 staff would come from.

But he did say that the trust was starting liasing with a high performing trust in the north of the country which employed fewer doctors and nurses per patient.

He added: "There is some evidence that we have more doctors and nurses per bed than other top performing trusts.

"Therefore, the question that has to be asked is if a high performing organisation can provide quality standards with fewer staff then we can, what is it that we are not doing right, or what is it that they are doing that we are not?"

Jeff Crawshaw, director of human resources, said clinical bosses had been asked to look at what impact losing 15 per cent of staff would have, while non-clinical bosses were being asked to look at the impact of losing between 15 and 20 per cent of staff.

He added: "No area is included or excluded and consultations are ongoing with unions weekly."

There were also concerns from the committee over £17.5m the trust has borrowed from the NHS bank over the next three years to help it break even, with an interest rate of 4.5 per cent.

But Mr Rostill said being able to borrow the money meant he and his colleagues knew exactly that they had to deal with up to 2008.

"The use of loans is a very sensible way forward, as by 2008, we should have a surplus of £2m at the end of the financial year," he added.

Mr Rostill said a number of reports to do with the current financial situation were due at the end of May which would be discussed and taken to the next trust board meeting at the end of June when matters can move forward a stage.