Anger at call to axe quarter of NHS beds (From The Northern Echo)

Anger at call to axe quarter of NHS beds

10:28am Wednesday 17th March 2010 in

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ONE in four NHS hospital beds in the North-East should be axed, according to a group of independent health experts.

A shock report by the rightof- centre think-tank Reform calls on the Government to cut more than 30,000 NHS hospital beds across the country to save cash and improve patient care.

The report – Fewer hospitals, more competition – says the North-East, the North- West and London all have a much higher number of beds and hospitals per head than other parts of the country.

The North-East has 40 per cent more beds and more than twice as many hospitals per head of population as the South of England.

Bringing every region into line with the South would mean the overall number of beds would fall from 160,000 to about 128,000.

The think-tank, which includes university academics, says the NHS has been right to reduce hospital beds by nearly a half since 1987, from 270,000 to 160,000 in England.

The report argues that the latest challenges in health care – helping people manage long-term conditions, such as diabetes, and improving the quality of life for survivors of disease – are less reliant on hospitals and can be mostly managed in the community.

It also highlights the number of beds being taken up by elderly patients who could be living elsewhere, so-called “bed-blockers”.

But the report was strongly criticised by Councillor Sam Zair, who was one of the leaders of the Save Our Hospital campaign which tried to prevent acute medical beds being withdrawn from Bishop Auckland General Hospital.

Coun Zair said: “This is absolutely ludicrous. It is not for real. It is time these pen-pushers got out and saw how much pressure the doctors and nurses are under.”

Coun Zair said the bed cutting plan was purely designed to cut costs at the expense of people’s health.

Liz Twist, Unison’s regional head of health said the report “failed to recognise the unique situation of the North- East” with its relatively deprived population, and health problems a legacy of its industrial past.

“The answer is not to reduce the number of hospital beds in the hope that people won’t get ill, but to carry on the good work in trying to prevent ill health.”

A spokesman for NHS North-East said: “By developing more services in the community, we can make access to care and treatment more local, reduce unnecessary admissions and shorten length of stay in hospital.

“We need to do even more of this and to reassure people that the health of the NHS isn’t purely determined by the number of beds in our hospitals.”