GPs must not “shirk” the challenge of downsizing NHS hospitals, GP and health commentator Phil Hammond argues in this week’s HSJ.

Dr Hammond, who covers health for Private Eye, claims: “There are too many hospitals swallowing up too much money for too little return.”

He continues: “Unless we start merging specialist services, the NHS will remain as unsafe and unsustainable as it always was. Commissioning consortia are soon to inherit the commissioning budget and the buck will pass neatly to them. But will GPs have the balls to make those difficult ‘Daily Mail camping on your lawn’ decisions?”.

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