The savings schemes set out by the London clusters entail significant reductions in work carried out by provider trusts, with urgent care centres picking up the slack.

NHS North East London hopes to remodel the emergency and urgent care offer at Newham University Hospital, now part of Barts Health Trust. It also aims to save £4.4m with a “GP streamer service delivering a 15 per cent shift of patients to GP surgeries and 100 per cent shift from the emergency department to the urgent care centre”.

The cluster hopes just under half of A&E activity at east London’s Whipps Cross, King George and Queen’s Hospitals can be shifted to urgent care centres.

NHS South East London hopes to shave £2.3m off the contract price for the Greenwich urgent care centre, the document reveals.

NHS North Central London plans to save £5.4m by the end of 2014-15 by reducing the number of emergency admissions by patients with a long-term condition, largely through closer management by GPs.

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