Hospital chiefs have raised further fears about the dangers to health budgets of NHS involvement with the £3.8bn Better Care Fund (BCF) which is designed to integrate adult health and social care.

David Flory, chief executive of the NHS Trust Development Authority, which oversees local hospitals, said the pooled budget arrangement - which would see clinical commissioning groups move £2bn from existing budgets to pay for joint commissioning and out of hospital and social care – causes ‘major concern' – amid complaints