The NHS is drawing up plans to close services including A&E departments and district hospitals amid a dire funding crisis. Experts warned there could be a “glut” of hospital services shut down as providers face a £23 billion national funding deficit.
An investigation commissioned by campaign group 38 Degrees uncovered 44 Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) being drawn up across England to meet significant cuts.
The revelations come after Stafford County Hospital suspended its A&E service for children on Thursday after senior staff said it was not clinically safe.
38 Degrees said the analysis, carried out by health policy experts Incisive Health, “reveals far-reaching plans to close services, which appear to have had little input from patients and the public”.
Full story in The News and Star 26 August 2016