England's hospitals to cut staff and close services to make 'eye-watering' savings

Hospitals in England are cutting staff, closing services and planning to ration care to make "eye-watering" savings demanded by NHS bosses.

- Denis Campbell

Rehabilitation centres face being shut, talking therapy services cut and end of life care beds reduced as part of efforts by England's 215 NHS trusts to comply with a "financial reset".

Sir Jim Mackey, NHS England's new chief executive, has ordered them to make unprecedented savings this year and next to avoid a projected £6.6bn deficit becoming a reality.

But trust bosses have said delivering what for some equates to 12% of their entire budget in "efficiency savings" will hit patients and the drive to bring down waiting times.

The government gave the NHS an extra £22bn for last year and this one.

Saffron Cordery, the interim chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts, said: "These [savings targets] are at eye-wateringly high levels. It's going to be extremely challenging."

A survey it conducted of trust leaders found diabetes services for young people and hospital-at-home style "virtual wards" are among the areas likely to be scaled back.