NEARLY £1 billion was overspent by NHS trusts in England in just the first three months of the financial year, it was revealed yesterday.

The £930 million deficit recorded from April to June, was described by regulator Monitor as the NHS’s “worst” financial position in a generation.

An “over-reliance” on expensive agency staff was the main cause for the huge debt, according to the regulator, and shortages in permanent staff led to “ineffectively organised services.”

The Department of Health (DoH) admitted in June that “rip-off staffing agencies” wasted a huge £3bn last year.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt had pledged to “take action to help hospitals clamp down” on using agencies which charge taxpayers up to £3,500 per shift for doctors.

The total bill for temporary management consultants was more than £600m last year.

But exposing the “alarming deterioration in NHS finances” after the Conservative Party annual conference was a tactical move by the Tories, said shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander.

In comparison, £820m was overspent in the entire last financial year.

The massive deficit is estimated to surpass the £2bn mark by next April — after the Con-Dem coalition had slashed vital NHS funding by a colossal £20bn.

Unite union national officer Barrie Brown said: “This is what happens when you have growing demand for NHS services and then decide to impose £20bn of so-called ‘efficiency savings’.

“Jeremy Hunt needs to start banging the Cabinet table to get more funds in real terms from Chancellor George Osborne, otherwise the NHS will go into a financial meltdown.”

Monitor warned that the health service is “under massive pressure” — but echoed Tory demands for “efficiencies rather than calling for investment.

Monitor head Dr David Bennett added: “The NHS simply can no longer afford to operate in the way it has been and must act now to deliver substantial efficiency gains required to ensure patients get the services they need.”

Underfunded trusts missed targets to tend to A&E patients within four-hour waits.

A lack of beds means 29,000 A&E patients — 35 per cent higher than the same period last year — languished on trollies for at least four hours before being assigned to a ward.