Patient care will be affected by service cuts at Bradford's hospitals as health bosses try and claw back an £11.3 million deficit.

The admission was made by David Jackson, chief executive of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, last night as he addressed an extraordinary meeting of hospital governors.

He also warned that Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke's Hospital were expecting a second wave of cuts.

Mr Jackson said: "I need to make it clear that this cost- reduction programme will have an impact on patient care.

"You cannot reduce the expenditure by £11 million and not affect the patients' experience but that does not mean that the patients' experience will necessarily deteriorate.

"Every effort has been and will continue to be made to make the impact beneficial and to minimise any adverse consequences."

Governors learned the Trust had already made 17 people redundant in its first wave of cost-cutting measures - which included saving £2.6 million by reducing nursing posts across a number of wards.

The meeting heard the controversial decision to stop escorts travelling on ambulances with patients to hospital appointments and clamping down on wasted ambulance journeys saved the Trust £200,000.

Closing elderly care ward C2 at St Luke's Hospital would save the Trust £680,000 and scrapping 15 beds in gynaecology at Bradford Royal infirmary would save £180,000.

Mr Jackson also revealed a reduction in portering, cleaning and catering staff was saving £434,000 but stressed cleaning had been cut back on offices and not on wards.

Thee measures are part of the first phase of a financial recovery plan which is centred on centralising surgery to make better use of facilities at Bradford Royal Infirmary and minimising use of St Luke's.

Mr Jackson warned governors the scale of the financial problem was so large it could not be resolved in just one year and would take until 2007.

The second phase of the shake-up is about to start as the Trust starts to "downsize" for 2005/06 and the following year in response to new arrangements with the district's Primary Care Trust, which commission services from the hospitals.

Mr Jackson said the effect would be to "improve the quality and efficiency of service, to reduce costs and to improve hospital facilities for patients".

He pledged to work to minimise redundancies but warned it would get "progressively more difficult".

Mr Jackson said downsizing the hospital was possible because the health of the population had improved and more services were being provided in primary care.