Hospitals will have to be closed and beds cut as part of a series of money-saving measures across the NHS in England.
A new report from The King’s Fund think tank has warned that the number of hospital beds could destabilise services that were already “stretched to their limits” after the Winter.
Community services were also “feeling the strain” and could not currently cope with an increase in workload, it said.
Sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) have been put forward by NHS chiefs in 44 areas in England as part of a national programme to transform the health service and save money.
The included hospital closures and cuts to some specialist services such as accident and emergency and stroke care.
King’s Fund Chief Executive, Chris Ham said that the NHS cannot “realistically” cut the number of beds when this winter had shown that they were needed.
But he added that also said it needs to throw its full weight behind the plans to stand a chance of pulling them off.
The cuts could include a 44 per cent reduction in inpatient bed days in south-west London and a cut in hospitals in north-west London from nine to five. Hospital beds in Dorset could also be from 1,810 to 1,570
Full Story in The Independent, 21 February 2017