Half of hospitals ready to axe beds with a third ‘keen’ to shut A&E departments in secret plan to ‘modernise’ NHS
MPs warn NHS modernisation plans are 'doomed to fail' unless extra money is pumped in
HALF of NHS boards in England are ready to slash hospital beds under secretive plans to “modernise” the NHS.
A third want to lose A&Es and one in five plan to shut maternity wards.
The measures are being considered by health boards tasked with identifying where a new “sustainability and transformation” strategy can be implemented.
They were exposed by a survey of 99 NHS commissioning groups, around half of those in England.
Plans include axing or downgrading more than half of community hospitals.
Joyce Robins, of Patient Concern, said after the research by the Health Service Journal: “Cutting beds when we already don’t have enough is terrifying.”
Dr Chris Moulton, of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: “These are truly desperate measures.”
The plans are being drawn up as the NHS seeks £22billion savings by 2020.
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Health Service chiefs insist the sustainability and transformation shake-up is not just about saving cash but will safeguard the NHS’s future.
Top priority for most health boards is a war on junk food and unhealthy lifestyles.
But Cathy Warwick, of the Royal College of Midwives, said proposed cuts looked “alarmingly like cost savings disguised as service improvements”.
The Department of Health stressed: “No decisions have been made.”
Meanwhile, MPs have warned that NHS modernisation plans are “doomed to fail” unless extra money is pumped in.
Dr Sarah Wollaston, chair of the Health Committee, claims ministers have only spent £4.5billion over five years rather than the £10billion claimed.
In a letter to Chancellor Philip Hammond she accuses them of “false impressions” that the NHS is “awash with cash”.
A spokesman said the Government backed hospital funding plans. He said: “The NHS has been heard and actively supported.”