ONE of the region’s most respected NHS trust bosses has launched a fierce attack on the Government for failing to deliver on promises of extra resources.

Alan Foster, chief executive of the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust, accused the Government of bad faith after Chancellor George Osborne promised an extra £2.5 billion for the health and social care system in his Autumn statement.

“The new money that was promised for the NHS doesn’t seem to be getting through to the front line,” said Mr Foster.

“We are under the most severe pressure and we need to get our hands on some of this extra money. The Chancellor told us £1.5bn was additional funding for local services and it doesn’t appear to be coming through. What I can’t tell is where it is in the system.”

He warned that unless extra resources were made available to acute hospitals like the University Hospital of North Tees and the University Hospital of Hartlepool cuts in services would have to be made, from reducing the number of beds to cancelling planned non-urgent surgery.

He added: “We are taking our winter beds out early because we can’t afford to run them. The risk is if we do this too early it puts more pressure on the system but we cannot afford to staff beds and ask exhausted staff to do extra shifts.”

Mr Foster said he was speaking out because he wanted to tell people what was really happening to the health and social care system.

“People need to speak out because I don’t think people really understand just how difficult things are becoming in the NHS. I think the money is in the system and the public are being told there is money coming through but we are not seeing it in the way we need to,” he added.

Mr Foster said negotiations currently going on with NHS clinical commissioning group suggested that his trust would end up with less money for the next financial year rather than more money.

“Quite frankly If the money doesn’t come through then the NHS is going to be in dire straits,” said Mr Foster.

He said the Better Care Fund, created by the Government to encourage a more joined up approach to health and social care “has just been a back door cut to the NHS because it has gone to prop up social care” after what he described as “draconian” cuts to local authority budgets.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "By taking tough decisions, we’ve been able to increase the NHS budget by an extra £2bn for the next financial year, and NHS England’s own chief executive Simon Stevens acknowledged we had ‘listened and responded with the funding [needed] for next year to sustain frontline NHS services and kick-start transformation.

"The £5.3bn Better Care Fund is the biggest-ever national programme to join up health and social care, will help more people to stay at home with dignity and independence, has the potential to cut around 160,000 emergency admissions and get people home from hospital more quickly when they do have to be admitted.

"This is not about taking money from one part of the system and giving it to another. The Fund will be held jointly by CCGs and local authorities for them to decide jointly how best to spend it”.

Mr Foster's comments coincided with a report by the King’s Fund, a leading health think-tank, giving their verdict on the NHS under the Coalition.

The report said that as the election approaches all areas of the NHS are feeling the strain, highlighting particular concerns about the missing of key waiting-time targets for A&E, hospital treatment and cancer treatment, increased hospital bed occupancy and delayed discharges of patients and low morale among staff.

The King’s Fund said hospitals and other providers of care have overspent their budgets by more than £800m and the NHS is likely to record a “substantial deficit” for the first time since 2005-06.

Mr Foster also criticised the Conservative MP for Stockton, James Wharton, for claiming he had “saved” North Tees Hospital by opposing plans to replace it with a new hospital in Wynyard.

“If he wants to save North Tees Hosital or the NHS as it stands he needs to make sure that the money that his secretary of state has promised gets through to North Tees Hospital,” he added.

Mr Wharton, who is contesting Stockton South in the General Election, said: “The trust has wasted countless millions of pounds pursuing the Wynyard Hospital white elephant. If they had stopped this vanity project long ago far more would have been available to invest in North Tees and the frontline. Going forward I want to secure very significant investment for North Tees and will work with the trust to fight for that if I am re-elected. Because it is in everyone’s interests to have a great local hospital at the centre of our community.”