Jonathan Ashworth MP, Shadow Health Secretary, commenting on new BMA analysis that has found NHS sustainability and transformation plans (STPs) will have to deliver £22 billion in cuts by 2020/2021 said:

“The financial crisis engulfing our NHS is staggering. The Tories are starving it of the cash needed and it is patients who are suffering as a result.

“These warnings that the proposed changes to local services in STPs are overwhelmingly driven by cuts - £22 billion of them – will set alarm bells ringing and rightly so. It’s amazing that the Government can claim that these plans are clinically driven when two thirds of doctors say they haven’t even been consulted.  

“What’s been revealed so far are drastic proposals to cut beds and services. It’s simply not acceptable for these decisions to made behind closed doors. The BMA must be listened to and all these plans should now be published so patients, carers, families and those who work in the NHS can have their say.”

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