Health bosses deny reduction in hospital beds is hidden from public

Health bosses today refuted claims by campaigners that bed closures in north-west London were being hidden from the public.

The London Health Emergency pressure group had alleged that cuts in the number of hospital beds over the next three years had not been included in a public consultation document, but the figures were in fact published as part of the Shaping A Healthier Future plan for the capital.

A spokesman for the NHS North West London said: “This statement is wrong, and alarmist.

“We have published all these figures in 73,000 distributed copies of our consultation plan – to which we have now received tens of thousands of responses, including in petitions and other formats, and 25,590 hits on our website.”