Efficiency drive hitting frontline health services, doctors warn

More than half (55 per cent) of 370 family doctors questioned said cuts to services were happening in their local area and another 33 per cent said they were planned.

The survey, for Pulse magazine, also found many doctors are worried about a shift of some services from hospitals into the community – likely to happen whichever party wins the election.

Providing more services at home or in health centres has the potential to save the NHS billions of pounds a year as well as allowing people to stay in their own homes.

More than half of GPs said they supported the move in principle but 86 per cent said community services did not have the capacity to cope.

Krishna Chaturvedi, a GP in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, said he was seeing cuts in blood tests, the loss of a health visitor, community nursing services, end-of-life care and dietetic and nutrition services.

"The list is endless, " he said. "It is impossible to do the transfer of services from secondary care to the community when there are so many problems of nurse employment as well as a reduction in services."

Pulse editor Richard Hoey said: "If politicians really want to start being upfront with the electorate, they might want to start by banishing the term 'efficiency savings' from their lexicon.

"It's becoming increasingly clear that these are just thinly veiled code for cuts.

"There are certainly efficiencies to be made – trusts could save hundreds of millions of pounds by stopping use of external consultants and cutting down their manager headcounts. But they have been asked to deliver up to 20bn of savings, and it's disingenuous to suggest that this can be done without cutting frontline care."

Bridlington GP Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the British Medical Association, said: "The financial challenges facing the NHS are considerable but cutting clinical staff or frontline services would be disastrous.

He added: "It can make sense for certain services to move from hospitals to the community, if the primary care sector has the capacity and resources to deal with them."

The director of the Patients Association, Katherine Murphy, said: "Cuts by stealth are simply unacceptable."

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "Despite Labour's claim that the NHS is being protected, it's quite clear that cuts to frontline services are already happening.

"The National Health Service does need to save money but we should start by cutting back on management, quangos and top-level pay, not cherished local services."

Shadow Hhealth Secretary Andrew Lansley, who yesterday told the Yorkshire Post his party would implement 20bn in efficiency savings in the next four years to help fund improvements in services, said: "This news makes a mockery of Labour's claims to be protecting the NHS frontline.

"It was clear Labour's 'efficiency savings' would lead to cuts because Labour have refused to pledge to protect the whole of the NHS budget.

"We will increase NHS spending every year so that vital services for patients are protected."

No one from the Labour Party was available for comment.