SEVERE cutbacks in breast screening, mental health services and physiotherapy may have to be made in Worcestershire to deal with a £297,000 health trust debt.

Worcestershire Community and Mental Health NHS Trust is currently running up the huge deficit, and needs to balance the books by the end of March.

The Trust is to bring in an emergency action plan within the next week to decide on what moves to make, but members are remaining tight-lipped about the nature of the cuts.

Lack of funding for services, especially mental health, has been blamed for the large deficit.

"This is desperately serious and is something which has been hanging over us for some time," said Gareth Hughes, vice-chairman of the Trust board.

"Mental health has always been the poor relation but we have to look at the broader picture. We need to balance the books by March.

"It is very disturbing but it's the reality we must face. The difficult decisions we will have to make are as a direct result of the lack of funding."

The Trust is under a statutory duty to the Government to break even at the end of the financial year.

Current figures show the position at the end of November.

Ian McCarley, finance and informatics director for the Trust, said Worcestershire Health Authority had been informed about the problems with mental health funding, but the Trust had been warned no cash would be forthcoming for this financial year.

He added the situation was not only a worry for this year, but may also have ramifications for the future.

"We are on our own now and we need to decide what to do," he said.

The Trust is responsible for providing services including mental health, community dentistry and breast screening, as well as running community hospitals in Evesham, Malvern, Pershore, Bromsgrove and Tenbury Wells.