NHS to close down 1,000 beds to overcome deficits |
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Published
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Mon, 01 Aug 2005 09:05
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LONDON: The Healthcare Commissions warning seems to have shaken the NHS out of its long drawn slumber with the hospitals and primary care trusts who are in the red deciding to reduce almost 1,000 beds in order to overcome the multi-million pound deficit that continues to haunt them.
The Sunday Telegraph has revealed that the hospitals are taking this step since they fear that the overall debt at the end of the year would be insurmountable. An estimate places this debt at an astounding £800 million. The government has also called on the NHS to institute massive savings as it seeks to can this growing financial debt-mountain. But John McIvor, of the NHS Confederation says that this task is not an easy one, "The quality of primary care services provided to patients must not be compromised by the government's call for savings," he observed.
It was also reported that the West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds is to close down 55 beds while the Royal Bolton Hospital in Lancashire is planning to shut down 26 geriatric ward beds as well as completely close the children's ward. Newmarket Hospital has been instructed to close 16 beds while the 32-bed Hartismere Hospital in Eye is slated for closure in March next year. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, south London is planning to close down the urology ward with all its 25-beds in an effort to save the hospital trust £234,000.
However, a spokesman for the Department of Health has refuted these findings, "The number of intermediate-care beds has more than doubled over the past five years. It is up to the local NHS to design services so they best meet the needs of the local population," he said. However, it must be pointed out that in almost all the hospitals where beds are being forced to shut down, it is the elderly who are facing the major problems. Since most of them are on pension schemes of one or the other kind, private hospitals are inaccessible to them.
It is precisely this point that Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary raised when he said, "We've warned the Government that not enough of the extra NHS resources are getting through to the front-line services. More than a third of hospitals are in deficit and the consequences will be seen in loss of jobs, closed beds and reduced services."
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