NHS plans ‘unthinkable’ cuts to balance books

The NHS in England is planning “previously unthinkable” cuts to try to balance the books, health bosses say.

Services including diabetes care for young people, rehab centres and talking therapies are in the firing line, according to NHS Providers, which represents health managers.

Staff, including doctors and nurses, also face the axe – and some NHS trusts are stopping overtime for doctors, putting the drive to cut the hospital waiting lists at risk.

NHS Providers said some of the savings were “eye-watering”, but the Department of Health and Social Care said NHS services should focus on cutting bureaucracy and driving up productivity.

The figures come after initial accounts for 2025-26 suggested frontline NHS organisations were going to go nearly £7bn over budget, an overspend nearly 5% above what they have been given by government, despite ministers increasing funding by £22bn over two years.

One chief executive of a large hospital trust said it was looking to shed 1,500 jobs, some 5% of its workforce, including doctors and nurses.

Meanwhile, a boss of a mental health trust told the BBC they had had to stop accepting referrals for adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), while waits for psychological therapies exceeded a year.

They said morale had “never been lower” among staff.

Other services at risk include stop smoking services and palliative care.

The closure of some maternity units is also being considered, although part of that is down to the falling birth rate which has seen a number of services being under-used.

NHS Providers received evidence from 114 trusts, more than half of the total in England.

Nearly all said they were cutting or planning to cut jobs which in many cases would affect clinical staff such as doctors and nurses too.

A majority also reported they were looking at closing services or at least scaling them back.

NHS Providers interim chief executive Saffron Cordery said NHS managers were having to think the “previously unthinkable”.

And she said while they would do their best to protect patient care, she added: “Let’s be clear. Cuts have consequences.”

She said pay rises for resident doctors – previously known as junior doctors – and inflation had eaten into the extra money the health service had been given.

But the Department of Health and Social Care said the extra funding being provided should be enough.

A spokeswoman said: “We have underlined the need for trusts to cut bureaucracy to invest even further in the front line so we can support hard-working staff and deliver a better service for patients and taxpayers’ money.”