The Yorkshire Post revealed last week how the Government had refused to step in to write off the historic deficit facing the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs hospitals in Wakefield, Pontefract and Dewsbury.

Instead local NHS bosses have been forced to come up with a solution to cover the debts now calculated at £77m – the highest facing a hospital trust in the country.

Under the terms of the bail-out deal, the region's strategic health authority (SHA) will fork out £45.6m.

Officials said a further £31.4m will be loaned to the hospital trust by the Department of Health but must be paid back. In the meantime Wakefield District Primary Care Trust (PCT) will provide transitional resources of £20.4m and Kirklees PCT will handover £11m to the hospitals over the next three years which they will not get back.

The cash from the PCTs has been generated from a fund set up to provide long-term investment in NHS services in coming years which both have already paid into.

It remains unclear how the £77m figure has been calculated or how the loss of the cash will affect the PCTs.

Julia Squire, chief executive of the Mid Yorkshire trust, said: "I'm delighted that this financial solution allows the trust to draw a line under the past and we appreciate the SHA and PCTs' support to make this possible.

"Through the hard work of our staff we have improved our financial position and performance each year to a point where we balanced our books in 2007-8 for the first time.

"This has created a real sense of confidence in the trust and enabled this solution to be reached. We now have the stability to move forward and serve local people securely in future."

Alan Wittrick, chief executive of Wakefield District PCT, said: "This means we can now look forward rather than backward and be certain that hospital services have been secured for local people.

"The feedback we are getting from our patients and the public is that they want high quality hospital care when they need inpatient treatment but wherever possible they want to be treated closer to home.

"That is why we have decided to make this money available to Mid Yorkshire trust but at the same time are continuing to commit significant levels of increased investment to community-based healthcare."

Mike Potts, chief executive of Kirklees PCT, said he was pleased the PCT had been able to help.

He claimed the deal would not have an impact on services for patients because it was being taken from the fund which had already been set up.

He added: "The PCT will continue to invest in new and improved services across Kirklees as we reduce waiting times and bring quality healthcare closer to people's homes."

The Mid Yorkshire trust was last year named as one of 17 trusts nationwide described as "financially challenged" because their debts had hit levels that they had no prospect of paying off.

A report drawn up by consultants from financial experts PricewaterhouseCoopers recommended a national solution was need to pay off the debts at Mid Yorkshire, with a one-off injection of cash they calculated at £85m.

The SHA last year agreed that historic debts worth £20.7m at Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare NHS Trust need not be paid back because of the threat of huge cuts to services.

Ministers are also being urged to write off debts of £19m that have been accumulated by North Yorkshire's PCT.