“I expect the extra money from this Monitoring Round to go to the Trusts, which were having to introduce higher impact savings measures following a recent consultation into their services. This overdue clarification means cuts which would have had a serious impact on people’s wellbeing and quality of life need not happen.
“However, the question is why the Trusts were required to initiate and pursue the charade of this consultation process, when growing indications of exactly this amount of money being made available for health have persisted for the past number of weeks. Staff, patients and families have had worries stoked up for no reason.
“There should be no illusions we remain in a precarious position, despite this money. While this stands down the proposed frontline cuts, we still need to reform the system, ensure more can be done in primary care to bring down waiting lists, and consider what other savings can be made across government to ensure we can maintain a high quality health service free at point of access.”