URGENT savings must be made at Warrington Hospital if it is to avoid a £10.8 million black hole.

Health bosses have 10 weeks to come up with a drastic plan to avert financial disaster.

They say they cannot comment yet where the savings are likely to be made, but job losses have not been ruled out.

Catherine Beardshaw, newly-appointed chief executive of North Cheshire Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "We will avoid compulsory redundancies wherever possible but we will end up with a smaller workforce."

John Doyle, trust finance director, warned the trust board in July: "While it is important to ensure that patient services are not materially affected I cannot see that savings of this magnitude will be possible without implications for the workforce."

Steve Blakely, regional officer for Unison, said the union was working with the trust, which was "making all the right noises", but said he was worried about possible job cuts and erosion of patient care.

He said: "Hopefully compulsory redundancies can be avoided by only filling vacancies where there is a dire need and through natural wastage."Helen Southworth, MP for Warrington South, said the important thing was that the hospital trust used its resources efficiently for the benefit of patients, and that staff were kept informed.

Helen Jones, Warrington North MP, declined to comment until after the 10 weeks.

The recovery plan will be presented to the trust board at the end of the 10 weeks, in November. Savings are likely to be phased over 18 months.

The trust has a recurrent deficit of £6.6 million, which Mrs Beardshaw says is due to the difference between the running costs and the income of around £156 million it receives from the PCT each year.

Mrs Beardshaw, who has been in post for only five weeks pledged that she was in the job for the long haul' and that the task ahead was do-able'.