Health bosses are planning to employ 8,000 fewer staff across the local NHS, secret documents show.
The news comes as latest figures reveal that demand for the A&E at Charing Cross Hospital is 25 per cent higher than two years ago.
The loss of 8,000 local NHS staff – which is likely to include doctors and nurses at Charing Cross Hospital – was contained in a ‘finance and efficiency’ document for the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP). H&F Council has repeatedly refused to endorse the STP.
The document was only discovered thanks to a local health campaigner who submitted a Freedom of Information request to the local NHS.
“Our overburdened local NHS needs more, not fewer resources,” said Cllr Stephen Cowan, Leader of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
“Any loss of staff at Charing Cross would put local people’s lives at risk – especially as doctors and nurses on the frontline of patient care are facing ever-rising demand.”
Figures provided by the NHS show that 3,849 people attended A&E at Charing Cross Hospital during December – an increase of 27 per cent at the same time two years ago.
November's figures showed 29 per cent more people attended than in the same month two years previously.
“Month after month we are seeing evidence of A&E at Charing Cross being under huge demand – a quarter or more than it’s already stretched position of two years ago,” added Cllr Cowan.
“Removing a service under such demand, when it provides care making the difference between life and death, should be a matter of grave concern to local people.”
And Merril Hammer, chair of the local Save Our Hospitals group, said: “These plans threaten patients’ lives. We need more beds and more staff, not ongoing cuts.”
Meanwhile, it has been confirmed Dr Tracey Batten – the highly respected chief executive of Imperial College Healthcare, which runs five West London hospitals including Charing Cross – has announced she will step down later in the year.
