The NHS has a budget totalling over £150bn a year. So when viewed in that context, the £250m promised by the Government to boost capacity and tackle record waiting lists before winter is small change.

The move will lead to the creation of 900 additional hospital beds, barely making a dent in tackling the crisis that has engulfed the NHS in recent years.

The more announcements like these are scrutinised the more it becomes clear that they are designed to make it seem like the Government is being proactive in tackling the issues impacting capacity in the NHS.

But unless the Government unveils a drastic transformation plan, the NHS will at best scrape through this winter.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with members of staff in the same day emergency care unit during a visit to Milton Keynes University Hospital, Milton Keynes. PIC: Leon Neal/PA Wire

The latest junior doctors walkout has just come to an end with threats of further industrial action as talks over pay and working conditions stall. The Government must make it a priority to bring an end to these strikes by thrashing out a deal with junior doctors.

While some progress has been made with some unions it is clear that there is widespread dissatisfaction amongst healthcare workers.

It not only creates a workforce crisis in the here and now but will make recruitment all the more difficult in the future.

As the building of Nightingale Hospitals showed, the country has the capability to react quickly when it comes to infrastructure and equipment but that then needs to be allied with skilled staff.

A s RCN general secretary and chief executive, Pat Cullen, says: “The elephant in the room is who will staff these additional beds? Nursing staff are already spread too thinly over too many patients.”

This latest announcement, which forms a part of a two-year blueprint to create extra hospital beds, is simply a sticking plaster.

£250m investment into the NHS to boost capacity is a sticking plaster - The Yorkshire Post says