Keeping Huddersfield’s A&E open would saddle local NHS services with over £281m in debt within seven years, health bosses have warned.

The trust, which runs the Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and Calderdale Royal Hospital, has warned that its debt will almost double to £40m by the end of the next financial year.

And if it continues to run both hospitals as they are NHS services in Huddersfield and Calderdale will be saddled with £281m by 2021/22.

That is the reasoning behnd moves to revamp hospital care in Huddersfield and Halifax.

Controversial plans revealed exclusively by the Examiner last week showed a proposal to demolish Huddersfield Royal Infirmary and replace it with a new unit on the Acre Mills site in Lindley.

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But full A&E services would be switched to Calderdale Royal Hospital, which has to meet tough financial considerations because of the Private Finance initiative deal.

Calderdale Royal Hospital, Halifax.

Now the Right Care Right Time Right Place document, which proposes the demolition of the existing HRI, says: “Looking forward, 2016/17 will see the trust with a £40.5m deficit after delivery of a further £14m savings.

“Without reconfiguration of our services between the two sites, the forecast is a cumulative income and expenditure deficit of £204m by 2021/22.

“At the end of the seven years in 2021/22, the financial challenge facing the area of Calderdale and Greater Huddersfield (health sector only) amounts to £281m.”

In a document detailing the case for closing Huddersfield Royal Infirmary’s accident and emergency department, health bosses warn that demand is increasingly outstripping the trust’s available resources.

It adds that two ‘significant financial’ pressures – the cost of running two A&E departments and PFI repayments – are leading Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust (CHFT) into a downward financial spiral.

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust chief executive Owen Williams

The document says: “CHFT have two additional and significant financial pressures, which along with those highlighted above, result in the trust being financially unsustainable.

“These two factors are... dual site running (two A&E departments less than six miles apart)...and a first wave PFI arrangement on the Calderdale site with no negotiable exit route (which is) legally tested.”

A Private Finance Initiative, which was used to build Calderdale Royal Hospital, Halifax, for £64m is expected to cost the trust £774m over 60 years.

CHFT can break out of the agreement in 2028 but the trust will have to pay financial backers £200m.