Roadshow to canvas views on ailing NHS

Millions of Londoners are being failed by the NHS, a new health manifesto for the city says today.

Bosses have launched the biggest ever consultation on the future of the service amid fears that standards are falling.

They say commuters cannot get basic health tests or see a GP at a convenient time, and that people with asthma, diabetes or heart disease are forced to trek to hospitals for appointments that could be carried out near home. Now health chiefs are spending millions to ask the public about plans to solve the problems.

From January, a "roadshow" will ask Londoners in every borough if they agree with the extensive changes.

Bosses want to abolish traditional hospitals in favour of specialist centres dealing with seriously-ill patients.

More people will also be seen in their own home, with cancer patients staying in their own beds and more midwives supervising home births.

Ruth Carnall, the boss of the NHS in London, said: "We have a chance to really change the way patients get what they need from the NHS and we need to know what people think."

The plans mean developing 150 polyclinics serving 50,000 people, new super-hospitals serving 250,000 people and three hospitals specialising in treating severe injuries, including the Royal London in Whitechapel.

Local hospitals will have a 24 hour casualty department but will leave complex emergency surgery to the bigger specialist hospitals. NHS chiefs claim the proposals could save £1.5billion a year but the announcement has triggered a row about privatisation attempts to slash costs.