NHS accused of shrouding £500m of planned cuts in secrecy

Doctors’ leaders have accused NHS bosses of shrouding controversial plans for £500m of cuts to services across England in “totally unacceptable secrecy”.

Patients deserve to know how hospitals being told to “think the unthinkable” as part of the savings drive will affect their access to healthcare, the British Medical Association (BMA) said on Friday.

The doctors’ union voiced its frustration after trying but failing to obtain details of the cuts that are being planned in the 13 areas affected by the “capped expenditure process” (CEP), despite the NHS’s duty as a public body to respond to freedom of information requests.

NHS bodies in just eight of the 13 areas replied, and none gave anything other than vague, general details about what cuts were under consideration.

“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,” said David Wrigley, the BMA’s deputy chair.

In April organisations providing all types of care as well as clinical commissioning groups, the local bodies which hold the NHS budget in England, in the 13 areas were told to make an extra £500m of savings by the end of March 2018 over and above those already planned. The orders came from NHS England and NHS Improvement, the service’s financial regulator, which are keen that its books can be made to balance in 2017-18.

The CEP has provoked a huge backlash from local NHS bosses who have been told to make “difficult choices” in their quest for savings. The Guardian revealed last month how patients could be denied treatment, waiting times for operations extended and A&E and maternity units may be shut under plans to save £183m across five London boroughs as a direct result of the CEP programme. There is also concern that cancer treatment may be delayed if the NHS in Cheshire reduces the number of diagnostic endoscopies it undertakes by 25%, and that patients in east Surrey and Sussex may be denied angiograms and even angioplasty surgery, as part of the CEP savings drive.

Simon Stevens, NHS England chief executive, last week told the 13 areas that “it’s time to be getting on with delivering” their planned cuts. Around £250m of cuts had been identified, he said, suggesting that the CEP may not seek the full £500m originally intended.

NHS England said: “The NHS has always had to live within the budget that parliament allocates, and the usual requirements for public consultation on any suggested major service reconfigurations of course continue to apply. However, it’s grossly unfair if a small number of areas in effect take more than their fair share at the expense of other people’s hospital services, GP care and mental health clinics elsewhere in the country.”

A spokesperson for NHS Improvement said: “We are committed to openness and work hard to engage with the public and stakeholders on a wide range of work done to support the NHS.”