Evan Harris, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, hits the nail on the head when he says that health services in Oxfordshire go from bad to worse.

The Government tells us that it is ploughing millions of extra pounds into the NHS every year.

Its pledge to boost public services was no doubt one of the reasons why it was returned for a third term.

Yet barely a month after the election, we are given dire warnings that the county's hospitals and other health services are facing a year of massive cuts to avoid debts of more than £50m.

Is it a case of the Government misleading the public in the run-up to polling day?

Or is it that our local health services are run so inefficiently that huge debts are building up?

If you believe the Government, the days of lengthy waiting lists are coming to an end.

But with debts of this magnitude, it is clear that something has to give, and patients are unlikely to be exempt from the fallout.

The whole business of NHS finance is a mess, and needs to be sorted out once and for all.