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More than 22 million people will see their A&E closed or downgraded in the biggest shake-up of the NHS in a generation, doctors warn.

Care from cradle-to-grave will be radically changed in an attempt to plug the £26billion black hole in health and social care funding.

The plans – branded a “death blow” to the NHS by campaigners – were until recently a secret with health chiefs ordering managers to keep details out of the public domain to prevent leaks of politically sensitive changes.

The British Medical Association has analysed 44 regional blueprints for the NHS in England. The changes planned before March 2021 are called Sustainability and Transformation Plans – dubbed Slash, Trash and Privatise by campaigners.

(Image: Getty)

BMA chair Dr Mark Porter, Britain’s most senior doctor, said: “This process was carried out largely behind closed doors, by rushed health and social care leaders trying to develop impossible plans without the necessary funding.”

Dr Eric Watts, a consultant haematologist of campaign group Doctors for the NHS, said: “This is a triumph of secrecy and implacable lack of care about the NHS by a Government determined to watch it fail then fall.”

A spokesman for NHS England said: “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.”