A report by the BMA claims that hospital services in London could close or be down-graded as healthcare in the capital heads towards “a major financial and organisational crisis”, with the imposition of real term cuts of £5 billion by 2017.
The report, London’s NHS on the brink, written by health expert John Lister, claims that the brunt of the cuts will fall on London. The report states that the following proposals are of particular concern:
• The aim to reduce the number of people going to hospital accident and emergency departments by 60% and the number going to hospital outpatients by 55%.
• Millions of patients would be diverted to unproven “poly systems” or clinics that have not yet been built. These changes would cut upwards of £1.1 billion from hospital budgets in London, forcing wide scale cutbacks and closures, according to the report.
• A 66% reduction in staffing of non-acute services – these include community services for older people and district nurses.
• A 33% cut in the length of GP appointment times.
• Slimming down London’s hospital network, reducing many district general hospitals to lesser “local hospitals”, and leaving just a handful of “major acute” hospitals.
• Annual reductions in the “tariff” that determines how much hospitals are paid per item of treatment.
