Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to the Nuffield Trust’s report on growing numbers of hospital trusts in deficit, said:

“The main reason why the NHS is in such a fragile financial position today is because of David Cameron’s disastrous decision to break his promise of ‘no top-down re-organisation’. It turned the NHS upside down and cost a staggering £3 billion.

"Everywhere you look, there are signs of an NHS now heading rapidly in the wrong direction. It is not just standards of patient care that are getting worse but NHS finances are in a dire state.

"David Cameron needs to take urgent action to stabilise the deteriorating situation in the NHS. Patients seeing waiting times getting longer will fear much worse will be in store next year. This is why the Prime Minister is losing public trust with the NHS.”