Public health managers have been told to sharpen up after regulators found the region’s hospitals are £50m in the red.

Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority has stepped up a land sell off and overhauled its budgeting systems, after the Audit Commission revealed that no one has a true picture of how much money is going into the local NHS.

The debt has been blamed on rapid population growth in Milton Keynes and the M40 corridor, and said Berkshire’s health trusts weren’t overspending. But the Audit Commission said the situation was serious, and told the health board to get on with finding £10m of cuts this year.

West Berkshire Hospital is planning to take on another 40,000 patients from the Tilehurst, Burghfield and Pangbourne part of the district, and is planning to transfer some backroom staff to the Royal Berks Hospital.

Hosepipe ban still imminent

Newbury is in for another heatwave next week, which could hasten a likely hosepipe ban in the area.

Southern England’s drought conditions were temporarily alleviated by heavy downpours this week, but reservoir levels are only half full, and Thames Water has urged customers not to take baths, not to wash the car, and not to hose lawns.

However, the company raised Newbury’s bills by 16% in April to pay for new pipes in London, has missed targets to cut leakage, and is struggling to find a site for a new reservoir in Oxfordshire.