Commenting on a new letter to NHS systems on financial challenges created by industrial action, the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, Saffron Cordery said:

"Trust leaders will feel a deep sense of frustration over the lack of extra funding from the Treasury to help the NHS tackle the fallout from nearly a year of industrial action.

"They understand the pressures on public finances and the need to achieve financial balance, but today's announcement for frontline services – funded largely through cuts to existing Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England budgets – will undoubtedly have knock-on consequences for the health service and patient care.

"It is right that patient safety, cancer treatment, maternity services and urgent and emergency care are put front and centre as we head into the challenging winter months. As always, trusts will do everything they can to prioritise these services.

"The impact of industrial action so far means that efforts to bear down on waiting lists – a government priority – will now not happen as quickly as trusts would like, as targets for planned care are watered down.

"The lack of additional funding from the Treasury has put even further strain on the core NHS budget. Today's announcement means inevitable cuts to national health budgets including digital transformation that would have made a major difference to transforming care and reducing costs over the long run. This, and other much needed innovations, will now be put on the back burner.

"Trust leaders will also ask whether the funding NHS England and DHSC have found from existing national budgets will be enough to plug the gap created by month after month of industrial action. Indeed, trusts were already facing very stretching efficiency targets and major, systemic financial challenges and these remain a huge challenge.

"More than ever, today's announcement underlines the critical need to resolve industrial action in the NHS. With this announcement based on no further strikes taking place, it is vital that ministers pull every lever at their disposal to break the deadlock in negotiations with doctors' unions."