MPs in the UK have warned that financial considerations will result in a major re-organization in the NHS services in England.

The Public Accounts Committee of the government has said that hospitals might be forced to close units or even merge with others under the coming circumstances. They said that the consequences would be suffered by the poorest in the country.
They pointed out that the problem is linked to historic debt, bad management and new plans to make savings. They asked the changes to be properly managed in order to avoid suffering of patients.

Margaret Hodge, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee said, "These trusts will be forced into reconfigurations or even mergers. This may deal with the financial challenges involved but could leave some deprived communities with unequal access to high quality healthcare when hospital departments are closed and services moved.”

He added that the problems are surfacing because all NHS units are being asked to aim at achieving foundation trust status by 2014. This would allow them to work more freely on finances but requires them to reorder their finances.

As of 139 NHS trusts have achieved foundation trust status and the remaining 113 are aiming to achieve the status in the coming time. MPs said that about 4 out of 5 of these were facing financial difficulties and would be difficult for them to achieve the foundation status.