NHS trusts have been asked to make extreme cuts as the service deals with a forecasted deficiency of nearly ₤ 7 billion, health leaders warned today.

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

Rehabilitation centres, talking therapies and diabetes services for youths are amongst services at danger.

Eighty-six per cent of respondents said their organisation is needing to cut jobs in non-clinical teams, while 37 per cent plan to cut medical posts.

A variety of trusts are aiming to cut 500 tasks or more, with one preparation as many as 1,000.

NHS union Unison's head of health Helga Pile stated: "Ministers shouldn't be insisting trusts stabilize their books while ignoring the damaging consequences for client care and a demoralised workforce.

"The NHS needs more personnel - not fewer workers - if delays and waits for patients are to end."

It comes as NHS president Sir Jim Mackey told a Medical Journalists Association occasion in London the service had "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 of around ₤ 200bn.

Though he has required extraordinary savings, he slammed the "normalisation" of bad care, stating that, 10 years earlier, "we would have never ever accepted old women being on passages next to an [A&E] department for hours on end."

We Own It founder and director Cat Hobbs said: "Back in 2012, the NHS was rated as the very best health care service in the world.

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

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