LABOUR demanded an investigation yesterday into claims that NHS funding figures were fiddled to save the skin of Tory Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Final quarter figures on spending by NHS trusts revealed yesterday that the health service is facing the biggest financial crisis in its history.

Trusts declared an unprecedented deficit of £2.45 billion in 2014/15 — a black hole three times bigger than the previous year — though this was lower than a £2.8bn shortfall forecast from earlier in the year.

But the government faced claims it had actively cooked the books to limit the embarrassment.

One NHS trust financial director, speaking to the BBC anonymously, accused the Department of Health of financial “alchemy.”

And the Nuffield Trust, Britain’s most respected health charity, said NHS providers had “come under increased pressure to change the way they present their deficits.”

In a bid to keep budgets below limits set by the Treasury, the charity said NHS capital budgets were reclassified as revenue, VAT rebates were moved and accounting policies were reviewed to “recognise as much income and as little expenditure as possible.”

Nuffield warned the “presentational measures” would not stop the funding crisis being “laid bare” next year.

Trust senior policy analyst Sally Gainsbury said: “Accountancy adjustments have not changed the underlying £3.5bn gap between the costs of providing hospital and community health services and the funds those services receive.

“NHS trusts have made cost efficiencies, but not as fast as their funds have been cut.”

Shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander warned: “The NHS is now in the deepest cash crisis in its history. 

“The Tories have lost complete control of hospital finances and it’s patients who are paying the price.”

And she said: “If it is the case that hospital bosses are being put under pressure to fiddle the figures to save face for Jeremy Hunt, then an urgent investigation must take place.”

A Department of Health spokesman hit back, saying claims of creative accounting were “misleading.”

He said: “The transfer from capital to revenue makes no difference to the overall picture.

“Our financial statements will be audited by the independent national audit office.”

The department also claimed it was investing an extra £10bn as part of a plan drawn up by NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens.

But former Lib Dem minister David Laws revealed in March that Mr Stevens actually told the Chancellor and PM David Cameron that £16bn was required.

NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson said: “The combination of increasing demand and the longest and deepest financial squeeze in NHS history is maxing out the health service.

“We already devote a lower percentage of our nation’s wealth to the NHS than France, Germany, Sweden or Greece, but by 2020 public spending on the NHS is set to drop further to below 7 per cent. This is simply not enough and we need to stop pretending it will be.”