Children's health services will be cut by hospitals struggling to balance their books before radical changes to financing next March, campaigners have warned.
NHS trusts are under pressure to clear their deficits in time for therollout of the national Payment by Results scheme, where healthcareorganisations will receive a set sum for each treatment they carryout.
NHS pressure group Health Emergency conducted a "snapshot survey" ofboard papers from most of England's 28 strategic health authorities, andthey identified 29 hospitals and mental health trusts that will have tofind at least 10m each to avoid going into the red.
John Lister, the group's information director, warned that althoughchildren's services were not among the areas most sensitive to cuts, theextent of the problem meant they were likely to suffer.
