The budget announcement is yet another failed attempt by the government to seriously address the crisis gripping our NHS.

Hospitals, GP surgeries and social care services in Reading and across the country face an uncertain future as years of underfunding and under resourcing is presenting itself in overstretched services and staff are increasingly exposed to dangerous levels of stress.

The extra £100m of funding promised for GP triage services across emergency departments will do little to ease the pressure on A&E’s and will take GPs, who are already struggling to recruit colleagues, away from their surgeries where they are desperately needed.

Similarly, the additional £325m in funding towards overseeing sustainability and transformation plans is just a drop in the ocean compared to the £9.5bn that is actually needed to successfully implement the plans across England.

In Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West alone £150m in capital funding is required in order to deliver the ‘transformation’ plans.

The government should have used the budget as an opportunity to plug the £30bn gap in NHS finances but has instead ensured that the situation will go from bad to worse - their complacency in addressing the actual amount of funding needed will ultimately affect patient care.

Mr Ian McNab (FRCS Tr&Orth) Chair, BMA South Central Regional Counci