HEALTH bosses have issued a warning that NHS jobs in North Yorkshire are likely to go because of an £80m debt facing the region.

David Johnson, chief executive of the North and East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire Strategic Health Authority, told a packed meeting of the county council's health scrutiny committee that some services were likely to be streamlined to help cut costs.

He warned that there were likely to be job losses among 'the men and women in grey suits' in the NHS and Primary Care Trust services.

Mr Johnson emphasised that there were three key issues in health care provision - that it should be affordable, good quality and accessible. He revealed that a major review, which will cover all the 14 community hospitals and three acute hospitals in North Yorkshire is under way as part of efforts to rein in spending. He promised the review would be 'transparent and objective'.

Fears that the accident and emergency unit at Scarborough General could be under threat of closure were dismissed by Mr Johnson, who said it was a vital service because people in the area would have to travel more than 40 miles to the nearest A & E department at York or Middlesbrough.

Committee chairman Coun John Blackie successfully moved that its members 'noted with concern' the financial position of the NHS in York and North Yorkshire, and the recovery plans being made. He said the committee would study the recovery plan and comment on it when it is produced.

The committee was told there were no plans to 'ration' health care in North Yorkshire. Mr Johnson said: "There is a collective responsibility to deliver it within the available funding."

Meanwhile it emerged that work is already under way in North Yorkshire to assist health care staff who may be looking for a job as a result of the planned merger of North Yorkshire's four existing primary care trusts to form a single megatrust extending from Richmond to York.