NHS bosses are secretly planning to extend waiting times, slash prescriptions and heavily ration hip and knee operations, doctors’ leaders warn.

They have launched a major cost-cutting drive across 13 regions in England which all massively blew their budgets last year.

Managers in these areas which include Bristol, Northumberland, Cambridgeshire and North and Central London have been ordered to make collective savings of £500 million over the next 12 months.

But they have not published any details of how they will meet this target or set out exactly which treatments and services will be cut.

The British Medical Association, the doctors’ professional body, fears the proposals will have a ‘devastating impact’ on patients and staff.

NHS bosses are secretly planning to slash prescriptions and ration hip and knee operations

NHS BOSSES GET £10 MILLION A YEAR...TO MAKE CUTS The NHS is spending almost £10 million a year paying managers to oversee hospital cuts, an investigation found back in June. Health trusts across England are drawing up controversial cost-saving plans that recommend the closure of A&E units, maternity wards and some entire hospitals. Yet figures reveal they have hired 150 high-earning managers to oversee these proposals with some earning six-figure salaries. They include operations managers, communications executives, general administrators and financial analysts who collectively earn £8.5 million a year. On top of this, health trusts are also shelling out £1.1 million on private consultancy firms to help oversee these cuts. The figures were obtained by the British Medical Association (BMA) through freedom of information requests to Clinical Commissioning Groups, local health boards. There are 44 ‘Sustainability and Transformation’ plans in place in England and they are aiming to change how local health services are run to make them more cost effective. Many of the STPs recommend closing A&Es, maternity wards, general wards and smaller community hospitals forcing patients to travel much further for care. Dr Mark Porter, chair of the BMA, described the salaries of managers as ‘eye watering.’ Advertisement

'Serious consequences for the care patients receive'

The so-called Capped Expenditure Process was launched by NHS England in April across 13 ‘health economies’; large scale areas which cover several health trusts and hospitals.

Managers in these areas have reportedly been told to ‘think the unthinkable’ and consider closing A&E units and maternity wards and rationing certain operations.

The BMA sent Freedom of Information requests to Clinical Commissioning Groups in these 13 areas to establish exactly which services they were planning to cut.

But only eight bothered to reply and none of them provided any details of the proposals.

Dr David Wrigley, deputy chair of the BMA’s council said: ‘These plans could have serious consequences for doctors working on the frontline and for the care and treatment patients receive and can expect in hospitals and GP surgeries in these areas.

‘It is bad enough that brutal cuts could threaten the services but it is totally unacceptable that proposals of this scale, which would affect large numbers of patients, are shrouded in such secrecy.

‘Patients, the public and frontline staff – who have worked so hard to keep the health service afloat through years of underfunding in the face of rising demand – must be at the heart of any plans for the future of the health service but we are all frozen out of discussions, and local health managers are being asked to push forward despite being unwilling to share their decisions openly.

‘This Government must stop and think before pressing ahead, as cuts on this scale in this timeframe would have a devastating impact on patients and staff.’

Products will no longer be available on prescription if they can be bought from a pharmacy

NHS CUTS 15,000 BEDS IN 10 YEARS Hospitals have axed 15,000 beds in just six years, leaving wards at ‘breaking point’, a shock report revealed back in February. The dramatic reduction – equivalent to closing 24 hospitals – amounts to a 10 percent fall in NHS beds at a time when the health service is under unprecedented pressure. There are now just 129,458 hospital beds available for patients at night, down from 144,455 in 2010/11. Critics say patients’ safety is at risk and blame the cuts on an NHS obsession with shifting care out of hospitals and ‘closer to home’. Health officials say patients recover more quickly if they are looked after in their own homes by GPs, district nurses and carers, but many surgeries and councils do not have the resources to care for people who would previously have stayed longer in hospital. At the same time, demand for beds is soaring due to the pressures of a social care crisis, immigration and an ageing population, with many more patients succumbing to long-term illnesses and frailty. Advertisement

'Asked to think the unthinkable'

One doctor who is involved in the plans said: ‘We were descended on and asked to think the unthinkable in no time at all. The NHS seems to go into a zone of secrecy as an automatic reaction.

‘That’s the thing that really upsets me – the secrecy of it all and the ridiculous pace in which solutions are to be crafted and agreed. It’s the management culture too – it’s all hierarchical power and bullying. Even the most modest proposals would cause uproar.’

Leaked documents which were circulated last month revealed how managers from North and Central London were planning to further increase the rationing non-urgent operations.

They were also aiming to cut back on prescription drugs, merge some A&E and maternity units and allow waiting times to dramatically increase.

Operations slashed to save money

This comes after a think-tank survey warned four in 10 health trusts are planning to slash the number of routine operations they fund in an attempt to save money.

This would lead to patients facing much longer waits for non-urgent procedures such as hip and knee replacement surgery, or being denied them altogether.

The King's Fund said National Health Service managers were increasingly having to make 'tough decisions' on how to spend their money.

The think-tank surveyed the financial directors of 48 Clinical Commissioning Groups – local health trusts – on their priorities for 2017/18.

Seven said they had already decided to reduce the amount of 'activity' – or operations – and 13 said it was 'under review'.

Hope to save £1 billion in two years

As part of the cuts, gluten-free food, painkillers and cough remedies will no longer be available on the NHS.

Patients will be expected to pay for anything that is deemed reasonably affordable and available at pharmacies or supermarkets, such as hayfever remedies and sun cream.

Savings in such areas are hoped to save the NHS £1 billion in two years, with money being directed towards lifesaving drugs and improving patient care.