It is nearly a month since we revealed to our readers the extent of the financial crisis gripping the NHS in Oxfordshire.

Yet still no decisions have been made on where the redundancy axe will fall and what cuts in services are proposed.

All the time, the suspicion is growing that the Government is putting pressure on health trusts to delay any announcements until after the local elections next week.

The Conservatives, of course, are making the most of it.

Wantage MP Ed Vaizey thinks it is likely that the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, for example, has been told to hold back. The trust has flatly denied the claim.

When such crucial decisions have to be made, it is right that managers should consider all options carefully.

But it is important to remember the effect such decisions will have on the community.

Patients want to know if they are going to get better or worse treatment in future.

Doctors, nurses and other health staff want to know whether they will still have jobs.

With no Government help forthcoming to ease the financial plight, managers in many fields of the NHS have a daunting task ahead of them.

But they must end the uncertainty quickly, election or no election.