Secret NHS cuts

Health Minister Jeremy Hunt has a secret plan to force changes to local NHS services, to cut costs. The changes – called “sustainability and transformation plans” – are being kept secret. But they could mean cuts to hospital beds, local walk-in centres or family planning services near you.

Across England, these plans are being drawn up in the next few weeks. Because they’re secret it’s hard to say exactly which services near you are at risk. But the plans for one area have been leaked and show the scale of the threat – they include closing a major hospital. No wonder Jeremy Hunt doesn’t want us to see them!

The best way to stop these cuts is to get them out in the open and demand the public has a say.

We have the best health service in the world, but it’s at breaking point after years of squeezed budgets and dodgy sell-off schemes. Now Jeremy Hunt wants to squeeze local services further, behind closed doors, without the public having a say.

Some doctors and nurses are already speaking out. But if we’re going to stop these cuts, the NHS needs all of us. People like you, your children, your grandparents, your neighbours.

It’s people power that can sound the alarm – and a huge, people-powered petition is a great place to start.

We all need the NHS at the best and the worst times of our lives – the maternity ward, the operating theatre, the doctor’s surgery. There’d be nothing wrong with drawing up plans to change your local NHS if they were focused on making it better for patients – but that’s not going to happen if they’re drawn up in secret and focused on Jeremy Hunt’s cost-cutting agenda.

Please sign the petition to reveal the plans and let us all have our say on them.