Thousands of patients could die as a result of the Government's policy to downgrade accident and emergency departments, the Daily Telegraph reports today.
A new report has found that the further patients travel in an ambulance to reach hospital the more likely they are to die, showing that mortality rates increase by one percent for every extra 6 miles travelled.
The report has been published by Sheffield University, which studied more than 10,000 emergency calls to ambulance services in Berkshire, Derbyshire, Essex and the West Midlands.
The Government policy of closing local A&E departments outlined in a White Paper in January 2006, which many see to be more about cost-cutting than improving services, has provoked protests amid fears people will have to travel further for emergency treatment.
Many people cannot understand why A&E departments are under threat of closure when they are perpetually busy and admissions have increased.
The report comes as other studies reveal negative developments in health services.
A report ranked England among the worst in Europe for cancer survival rates, research in the British Medical Journal showed that junior doctors were not receiving the training they needed to provide high quality care in the future and thousands of nurses faced unemployment due to a lack of jobs.
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