Scores of hospital departments such as maternity units and cancer clinics will be closed or merged under plans for a radical shake-up of the NHS.

NHS shake-up to axe hospital services

Extract from the Telegraph:

"Ministers are preparing for a summer of protest as residents campaign against proposals that could mean local hospitals losing specialist services to large regional centres.

In an attempt to head off the reaction that could mar the 60th anniversary of the NHS in July, Lord Darzi, the health minister, has pledged that patients would be involved in decisions and hospital units would not close before new ones opened."