HEALTH leaders have warned Jeremy Hunt against making further cuts to healthcare after the new Chancellor said he was “not taking anything off the table.”

Mr Hunt hinted during an interview on Saturday that he may go back on the government’s promise not to impose any public spending cuts in his upcoming budget announcement.

He said fresh “efficiency savings” will need to be made to address the country’s economic issues but declined to get into specifics.

NHS Providers warned that enforcing further cuts on the health service would be “incredibly difficult to manage” and could result in more delays within an already under-pressure system.

Interim chief executive Saffron Cordery said: “Trust leaders are already making difficult decisions every day as they grapple with funding for public services that are diminishing daily due to soaring inflation, the cost of pay awards not fully funded by the government and cuts in funding to deal with the ongoing costs of Covid-19.

“These vital services are managing Covid, workforce shortages, major waiting lists, and spiralling demand as we head into what’s expected to be an incredibly challenging winter.”

Royal College of Nursing general secretary Pat Cullen insisted that the need to invest in the NHS and social care system has never been greater, and that enforcing cuts “does not make sense.”

She said: “If the new chancellor is serious about spending money more wisely, then he must invest in the nursing workforce.

“Mr Hunt must put patients first.

“The nursing workforce crisis is undermining safe patient care and with many choosing to leave the profession for better paid jobs elsewhere, the need to pay a demoralised and unvalued profession fairly could not be more pressing.

“These considerations must be uppermost in Mr Hunt’s mind as he announces the government’s economic reset.”

Labour shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said that any cuts brought forward by the government “are entirely of its own making” and “because of its own incompetence.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham warned of austerity under a different name hinted at in Mr Hunt’s earlier comments.

“We have another incident that is not the fault of workers, it is not the fault of communities, yet they will be asked to pay the price,” she told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme.