A HEALTH chief has pledged to tighten the screw on overspending health trusts in north and west Wiltshire.

Trevor Jones, is head of the Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Strategic Health Authority, which manages 25 NHS organisations across the region.

The SHA faces a collective overspend of £24.4m one per cent of its budget.

West Wiltshire and Kennet and North Wiltshire Primary Care Trusts make up £10.5m of this deficit and Mr Jones is determined to break even by March 31.

Speaking ahead of yesterday's SHA board meeting, he said: "It's been a difficult financial year, but what we have to do is clear that £24m by the end of March. We are close but not close enough.

"Every organisation needs to be in balance and we need to achieve collective balance."

West Wiltshire PCT has a forecast overspend of £2.162m while the Kennet and North Wiltshire figure is £8.694m and Mr Jones could not say whether balancing these would mean service cuts.

He said: "This patch had one of the worst financial positions in the NHS 18 months ago.

"We've made huge progress, but a forecast overspend is not an acceptable position because there is an absolute requirement that we live within our means."

The board meeting was also due to hear a report on the ongoing review of Wiltshire's ambulance trust after its recent zero-star ratings.

Bosses are considering having a single management structure for ambulance services in Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire or a full merger to improve efficiency.