NHS trusts have been asked to make drastic cuts as the service faces a predicted shortfall of nearly ₤ 7 billion, health leaders warned today.

In a study for NHS Providers, 47 per cent of trust leaders warned they are rolling back services to stabilize the books, while another 43 percent are considering doing so.

Rehabilitation centres, talking treatments and diabetes services for youths are amongst services at threat.

Eighty-six per cent of participants said their organisation is having to cut jobs in non-clinical groups, while 37 percent plan to cut medical posts.

A variety of trusts are aiming to cut 500 jobs or more, with one planning as numerous as 1,000.

NHS union Unison's head of health Helga Pile said: "Ministers should not be firmly insisting trusts stabilize their books while ignoring the destructive effects for client care and a demoralised workforce.

"The NHS needs more staff - not less workers - if delays and waits for clients are to end."

It comes as NHS president Sir Jim Mackey told a Medical Journalists Association event in London the service had actually "maxed out on what is inexpensive."

He stated that the NHS was likely to have a ₤ 6.6 bn deficit this year, regardless of a budget plan of around ₤ 200bn.

Though he has demanded unprecedented savings, he knocked the "normalisation" of bad care, saying that, ten years back, "we would have never ever accepted old ladies being on passages next to an [A&E] department for hours on end."

We Own It creator and director Cat Hobbs said: "Back in 2012, the NHS was ranked as the very best healthcare service on the planet.

"That was before the legislation that intentionally opened up our entire NHS to profiteering.

"Sir Jim Mackey is dead-on to state that patients being dealt with in corridors and parking lot is unacceptable. If he wishes to stop this scandal while saving money, he must end privatisation as rapidly as possible.