HOSPITAL chiefs fear it may take them up to three years to steer their accounts back into the black.

A fresh review of East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust's financial deficit has resulted in a new drive to make savings.

But bosses have admitted for the first time that they won't be able to break even by the end the financial year in March.

At the start of the financial year the Trust, which runs hospitals in Blackburn, Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale, was £3.9million in debt.

It then unveiled a plan to wipe out that debt by April this year, but instead now faces a £5.5million deficit after departments failed to deliver the savings.

Stephen Brookfield, acting director of finance at the Trust until David Meakin returns from sick-leave, said: "It could take two to three years to return the Trust to a break-even point.

"We are looking at what can be achieved over the next 12 months, and then after that. A series of savings were proposed in December, which included temporary bed closures, but we have not been able to deliver these savings because the hospitals have been so busy.

"There is a change in the way hospitals are funded, receiving payment on results, and this should give us an extra £6million a year once it is fully implemented.

That will help a lot."