A&E cuts could affect 23 million people

More than 40 per cent of the population will be affected by proposed cuts to A&E departments, the British Medical Association (BMA) warns.

The BMA have also warned that changes were being rushed without evidence that they will work.

The proposals have been submitted by local managers looking to make savings under the direction of NHS England. Bosses have argued services in the community will improve in return.

The ‘sustainability and transformation programme’ (STP) sees England being divided into 44 areas and asked to introduce individual proposals.

After assessing local plans, the BMA found that 18 of them involved the closing or downgrading of an A&E department, 14 proposed closing or merging a hospital, and 13 put forward closing hospital beds. In these plans, populations of 22.9 million, 17.6 million and 14.7 million were covered respectively.

As the areas cover large locations with several hospitals, not necessarily everyone will see their closest hospital affected. But, as the BMA argues, it will affect a hospital in the next country or town, meaning that a knock-on for other sites in the area will impact everyone else.

Dr Mark Porter, leader of the BMA, said that changes are ‘rushed through without appropriate evidence’ and money is being ‘wasted’.

NHS England has since rejected the criticism, saying: “Rather than just commenting from the sidelines, local health and care leaders and clinicians are coming together to actually try and solve some deep-seated problems by identifying practical ways to improve services.”