A&E Closures Announced By Health Secretary

The Health Secretary has announced the closure of at least two A&E departments across northwest London, claiming it will save 130 lives a year.

Jeremy Hunt said the proposals were the "most ambitious plans to transform care put forward by any NHS local authority to date".

In a statement to the House of Commons, Mr Hunt said accident and emergency services across northwest London would be centralised at five hospitals, instead of nine.

Although the reorganisation programme is limited to northwest London, it is widely thought it will be repeated across the country in a move which is expected to be unpopular with the public.

Mr Hunt said that under the Shaping a Healthier Future programme for northwest London there would be 24/7 urgent care centres at each of the nine hospitals.

The announcement came just a day after Mr Hunt was told by the Supreme Court that he had not had the power to announce cuts to A&E and maternity services at Lewisham Hospital.

Following criticism over the high mortality rates in emergency departments during the weekends he announced that there would be 24/7 consultant cover at obstetric wards.

In addition he said there would be a new trauma hospital at St Mary's Paddington and new "custom-built" local hospitals at Ealing and Charing Cross.

Two A&E wards will close after winter but two further proposed closures will be paused while further work is done to determine what the local community needs.

Mr Hunt said that he had to take "tough decisions" to make sure the NHS remained "one of the greatest institutions in the world" and added: "The improvements in emergency care alone should save 130 lives a year."

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham responded by saying: "Even though you have made some minor concessions today, you are still performing pretty brutal surgery on west London's NHS. It is the single biggest hospital closure programme the NHS has ever seen."

Sky News Health Correspondent Thomas Moore said such large closures, which were deeply unpopular with the public, would be a battleground for the General Election.

He said: "They say that it's much better to provide around-the-clock cover from senior doctors in fewer but larger units.

"It's difficult to see how travelling further is going to end up saving, as Jeremy Hunt said, 130 lives a year, but that is basically what they are saying; that if you go further for the better care you will stand a better chance of surviving major trauma."

Unite's head of health Rachael Maskell said: "We need far more assurance that this move does not mean losing skilled frontline staff with the service under tremendous pressure already, and access to emergency care made even more difficult for patients.

"Since coming to office, the health secretary has been responsible for cuts to thousands of jobs and many closed wards. He has allowed waiting times to rocket and done little to stem concerns that the NHS is not safe in Tory hands."