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Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive of The Patients Association, said: “Today’s Budget has set the NHS and social care system on course for a continuing crisis in the coming years.

“We argued that at least £1 billion extra would be needed for social care – the Chancellor has delivered this, but it is not the recurring funding we recommended. Instead, the extra funding this year and next is merely a ‘bridge’ to the expanded Better Care Fund later this decade. It’s good, but it’s not good enough.

“We also urged that the NHS should be given extra funds for both up-front investment in service transformation, and its ongoing commissioning budget. The Chancellor has delivered the former but not the latter. We do not believe the NHS can operate safely and to a high standard within its current spending envelope – today’s Budget misses an opportunity to revisit the 2015 Spending Review settlement.

“Overall, the Chancellor seems to have fallen into the cycle of ‘crisis, cash, repeat’ identified by the Institute for Government last week. Last autumn there was emergency cash for prisons, today it is social care, and in the autumn Budget it could well be the NHS. Patients deserved better-planned and better-funded services than this.

“However, we do believe Mr Hammond deserves credit for commissioning a green paper on a sustainable funding model for social care. But many governments have done similar things before and ultimately failed to bring about change. The Chancellor will have to show bold and decisive leadership to avoid the same fate – if he does, he can count on our strong support.”