A CRISIS-hit health trust in the region, which once faced a £43m financial black hole, last night insisted its troubles were over after finally balancing its books.

North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) was forecast to break even in 2007-08, in the latest financial performance figures published for every NHS body.

It is a dramatic turnaround from the £32.1m deficit the PCT recorded in the previous financial year - itself a sharp reduction on the £43.5m debt it forecast at one gloomy point.

The PCT must still pay off its £32.1m "historic" debt, but last night pledged to do so within two years - without any job losses.

In April, the trust unveiled a "service modernisation and financial recovery plan" to ensure financial balance, which focused on treating more patients at home.

Instead of follow-up appointments at community hospitals, patients with conditions such as broken bones will receive visits from occupational therapists.

A spokesman for the PCT said: "The plan will ensure that, by the end of the financial year 2008-09, all debt is repaid and the PCT is in recurrent financial balance.

"Everybody will benefit, because patients will receive the care they need in their own homes and it is more cost effective for the trust than delivering that care in hospital."

Gordon Brown immediately hailed a similar turnaround in the NHS's finances across England as proof that "the health service is getting better".

But Unison, Britain's largest health union, pointed to the "unnecessary heartache" - job losses and delayed operations - required to achieve the turnaround.

At the start of the year, North Yorkshire and York PCT suspended routine operations, such as for gallstones. At least 250 people were refused treatment.

All other hospitals in the North-East and North Yorkshire are forecasting surpluses or are "foundation trusts", which are not required to provide figures to the Department of Health.

The overall figures showed the NHS was forecasting a £983m surplus at the end of 2007-08, up from the £510m surplus recorded last year.

The gross deficit of the NHS - the total amount owed by the 22 trusts still in deficit - is expected to be £204m, compared with £911m in 2006-07.

The Prime Minister, visiting a new NHS clinic in London, said the surplus meant the Government was able to pump more money into frontline services, such as tackling hospital infections.

Mr Brown added: "People do understand the health service is getting better, but it is going to get even better."

But Stephen O'Brien, the Conservative health spokesman, said: "Ministerial incompetence has been paid for in cuts to staff and frontline patient care."

Lib Dem spokesman Norman Lamb MP said: "Patients and those working in the NHS will be left asking what the hidden cost of achieving this surplus was."

More than 10,000 people have signed petitions against controversial plans to axe hundreds of health jobs in North Yorkshire.

About 600 jobs at Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Trust are to go as bosses try to cut millions of pounds from its budget.

The job losses - a third of the trust's workforce - come after the trust ended the last financial year with a deficit of more than £7m and a cumulative debt of £20m.

Consultants, doctors, nursing and other staff are running campaigns in Scarborough, Whitby, Malton, Pickering and Filey, protesting that the cuts will result in a sharp decline in services.

Consultant anaesthetist Dr Ian Tring said: "If these cuts happen there is a very real risk the Scarborough area will have a Third World hospital in terms of services it is able to offer."