Kingston Hospital could be hit with more swinging cuts as the NHS faces another £6.5m reduction in spending across its services.

The savings outlined for 2012-13 are on top of this year’s £6m target and form part of a national Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) efficiency programme.

Draft plans show £3.3m of the potential identified savings will come from acute care at hospitals.

Another £650,000 will come from mental health, including the reprovision of rehabilitation units from Rose Lodge in New Malden and Fuschia ward in Tolworth Hospital.

Some of the money will be saved from reducing the number of people with minor injuries going to accident and emergency (A&E) and spending less on expensive drugs, although those figures have not been decided yet.

A spokesman for NHS Kingston said: “We will work closely with partners to minimise the effect on front-line services.

“For example, this year we have been providing a number of services in clinics closer to patients’ homes, which is more convenient for them and also represents better value for money.”

Julie Reay, of Health Alert Kingston, said: “With the pressures being put on GPs, at the same time as all the changes in the NHS, I cannot see how patient care will not be affected.”

Kingston GP Charles Alessi, one of the architects of national NHS reforms, although not a member of Kingston’s commissioning committee, said no clinicians wanted changes to adversely affect patient care.

He said: “I do not think one knows yet. We really need to work closely with acute providers such as Kingston Hospital to see how we can manage the challenge that has been given to us.”

Nearly £1m of the savings are envisaged to come from referral management by GPs referring patients to the right service, as sending patients straight to hospital costs more money.

The hospital previously said it expected a 40 per cent reduction in A&E attendances and a 38 per cent drop in outpatient appointments.

Job cuts will also see one in five posts at the hospital go, including 214 nurses, midwives and health visitors.