NHS Warrington’s new chief executive will juggle the role while holding the top post at NHS Western Cheshire.

Helen Bellairs, aged 58, replaced Nicky O’Connor last Wednesday.

Her main priority will be to drive down the organisation’s £13 million overspend having already balanced Western Cheshire’s books, which once had a £42 million budget deficit.

She said: “We’re currently doing a rigorous stocktake to develop a long-term financial strategy and we’ve asked for six weeks to have a look at what we can do to get back into balance by the end of this year.

“Warrington still has a significant financial challenge and it’s not going to be easy to meet our fiancial targets for the end of the year and we may have to make some difficult decisions, with some posts having gone already. We want to be very clear what they might be and on what basis.”

Ms Bellairs is now looking forward to implementing a Government white paper that will see PCTs scrapped come 2013 and GPs taking over key health decisions at a more grass roots level.

The paper is currently under consultation while the transitional plans are to be revealed towards the end of this year.

She added: “We will put plans in place to get NHS Warrington where it needs to be in 2013 by delivering today, managing finances, working with GPs and by developing for tomorrow.”

Talking about the creation of one chief executive post for two PCTs she said: “With the changing model for the NHS under the white paper and the need for management cost savings it’s inevitable organisations will have to work together by using common resources.

“It won’t just be about me, I’ll have my team behind me and we’ll find ways of working together. I don’t see this as Warrington and Western Cheshire getting half a chief executive.”

Ms Bellairs, who lives in Helsby, has an NHS career spanning more than 40 years, starting as a nurse before moving into management in the late 1980s.

Her career in the north west includes posts as director of commissioning in Warrington, director of the cancer network for Cheshire and Merseyside and chief nurse and director of performance at Cheshire and Merseyside Strategic Health Authority.