FAMILY doctors have condemn-ed major cuts in health services as "panic measures" which will cause increased suffering for patients.

GPs' representatives say an action plan by the new North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) means ill people will be sent home from hospital without the necessary community care being in place.

The proposals, which take effect from Monday, aim to reduce a deficit of £24m inherited from the former PCTs from which the organisation was formed earlier this year. Measures include:

* New assessments of emergency patients, who will be sent home when it is considered clinically safe;

* Earlier discharge for some long stay patients;

* Re-directing people with minor injuries from hospital accident and emergency departments to walk-in centres, minor injury units and GP surgeries;

* Minimum waits of 12 to 16 weeks for routine surgery and eight weeks for outpatients;

* Suspension of some treatments, including varicose veins, wisdom teeth, joint injections, some x-rays and scans, vasectomies and ear grommets;

* A ban on some non-emergency drugs and delays in some follow-up treatments.

John Givans, secretary of North Yorkshire local medical committee, which represents GPs, said doctors were horrified at the cuts.

"This will undoubtedly cause patients to suffer increased pain and I can see all sorts of risks associated with it," he said.

"People who are quite ill will be sent home, but there are no extra services in the community to cope."

The new PCT was not to blame for the situation, which he believed was due to under-funding in the past and to the "incompetence" of previous PCTs.

Mr Givans said that political pressure from the Government was also a factor. "North Yorkshire is not seen as somewhere worth bothering about because there are not many votes for the Government in North Yorkshire," he said.

In a letter to hospital managers, Dr Janet Soo-Chung, chief executive of North Yorkshire and York PCT, said that the dire financial position of the organisation meant there was no alternative to cutting services.

A PCT spokesman said discussions were held with GP representatives and hospital managers while the action plan was drawn up.

But Mr Givans said advice from GPs had been ignored.