Reacting to reports on 22 January that the Health Select Committee is to call for the Health and Social Care Bill to be scrapped, NHS Confederation chief executive Mike Farrar said the full implications of the financial pressures remain poorly understood outside the NHS and that honesty is needed about the need to fundamentally reorganise the way care is delivered.
Quoted on BBC online, Mike said: "I am deeply concerned about the financial pressures facing the healthcare system in this country and the impact this will have on patients.
"The full implications of this remain poorly understood outside the NHS, partly because politicians are reluctant to stand up and explain them.
"If we are to keep the NHS sustainable in the long term, we need to be honest that this will mean fundamentally reorganising they way we deliver care in the best interest of patients.
"Some local hospital services will need to close or move into larger specialist centres. We also desperately need to strengthen care provided in the community."