Hospitals must close to save NHS from financial ruin, warn doctors as deficit is predicted to hit £54bn by 2022
- Service no longer sustainable in its current form, says health alliance
- Group calls for transfer of services from hospitals to the community
- Wants an increase in GP surgeries, district nursing and social care
- Royal College of Nursing says 6,000 beds - or 20 hospitals - could go
- Union boss warns NHS will otherwise 'descend into spiral of poorly planned, reactive responses'
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The NHS faces financial ruin and is no longer sustainable in its current form, doctors, managers and patients have warned.
Hospitals may have to be closed and major changes to the way the health service is run should be brought in to help pull it back from the brink of collapse.
The Academy of Royal Colleges, the NHS Confederation and patient group National Voices have urged politicians to 'show more courage' in dealing with the NHS's multi-billion pound deficit, The Times said.
