Bed closures healthy sign for NHS, says Hewitt
Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, was criticised yesterday for claiming bed closures were a sign of "success" as new figures showed NHS trusts will end the year more than £1 billion in the red. The scale of the health service's financial crisis emerged as Miss Hewitt delivered a presentation to the Cabinet on NHS "reconfiguration" — plans which will lead to the closure of dozens of maternity units, casualty departments and community hospitals.
Tony Blair tried to rally support for his embattled Health Secretary during yesterday's meeting by hailing her proposals as the "biggest change in the NHS since its foundation". He added that better care and value for money could go "hand-in-hand".
But the Prime Minister's spokesman admitted later that ministers were free to oppose proposals to close hospitals or cut services in their own constituencies. His comments came as research showed that frontline NHS trusts which run hospitals and GP clinics across England are on course to finish the year £1.05 billion in the red — only a fraction below last year's record deficit.
The figure is drawn from a Conservative analysis of the deficits being forecast by each of England's 10 strategic health authorities.
While front line trusts are deep in the red, the strategic health authorities themselves are on course to end the year with a huge £920 million surplus — almost twice last year's figure. This allows ministers to say the overall deficit across the whole NHS is only £132 million.
However, the Tories claimed that health authorities have only been able to produce such a big surplus by slashing the amount they spend on crucial services, including training for doctors and nurses.
The figures were released as Miss Hewitt was accused of living on a "fantasy planet" after defending the proposals to overhaul services across the country.
She claimed the planned changes would allow more people to be treated closer to home by their family doctor or local health centre, rather than having to go into hospital.
"That will mean fewer emergency admissions, so you need fewer beds. Fewer beds are a sign of success — not a sign of failure," she said in a newspaper interview.
Miss Hewitt took up the theme during yesterday's presentation to the Cabinet. She argued that NHS reconfiguration was being driven by both patient demands and changing medical practices.
It was increasingly possible to treat more minor conditions in local health centres rather than the local hospital, she said. At the same time, specialist care for conditions such as heart disease were increasingly being concentrated in regional centres of excellence.
Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said Miss Hewitt's remarks would be greeted with incredulity at a time when many trusts were struggling to cope with huge deficits.
"The Health Secretary is living on a fantasy planet, far removed from the reality of the front line cuts that are having a daily adverse impact on NHS staff and patients," he said.
"Despite this year's savage job losses, bed cuts and service closures, the NHS organisations providing front-line care are no less in the red than they were last year."
The Patients Association said it did not see bed closures as a sign of success.
"What we hear about from patients is inappropriate discharges with patients being sent home too soon," said Katherine Murphy, a spokesman for the association.
"We heard from one patients due to be discharged on a Wednesday who was away from her bed for 50 minutes, the night before to take a bath. When she went back to the ward someone was in her bed.
"Beds are being closed because of financial deficits. I would not call this a mark of success," she said.
From:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/09/nhs09.xml
A split and indecisive labour government looks in the offing. The first two blogs that Health Direct posted at the beginning of this year look to encapsulate Labour’s dilemmas.
On Wed 3 Jan 07- in NHS hospitals told to delay operations to ease health service's debt underfunding Health Direct warned that the New Year has only just begun but it is clear that the next three months are not a good time to become ill as the NHS can not cope with Labour's underfunding of the health services as patients in some parts of the National Health Service are for the first time facing minimum waits to be seen and treated as managers attempt to balance their books. Suffolk, Hertfordshire, North Yorkshire and Kingston are all imposing various forms of minimum wait, with some primary care trust chiefs saying their organisations may follow suit as the NHS battles to recover from last year's £536m plus overspend.
On Tue 2 Jan 07 Health Direct noted that Labour leader defends hypocritical charges over NHS closures in her constituency - Cabinet minister Hazel Blears has defended her decision to take part in a protest over plans to close part of a hospital in her constituency. The proposals for Hope Hospital in Salford, Greater Manchester, are part of the controversial NHS shake up throughout the country.
Ms Blears, Labour chairwoman, said: "My first and foremost job is to represent Salford and the people of the area." It is very damaging for a minister to directly oppose labour government policy.
Tony Blair tried to rally support for his embattled Health Secretary during yesterday's meeting by hailing her proposals as the "biggest change in the NHS since its foundation". He added that better care and value for money could go "hand-in-hand".
But the Prime Minister's spokesman admitted later that ministers were free to oppose proposals to close hospitals or cut services in their own constituencies. His comments came as research showed that frontline NHS trusts which run hospitals and GP clinics across England are on course to finish the year £1.05 billion in the red — only a fraction below last year's record deficit.
The figure is drawn from a Conservative analysis of the deficits being forecast by each of England's 10 strategic health authorities.
While front line trusts are deep in the red, the strategic health authorities themselves are on course to end the year with a huge £920 million surplus — almost twice last year's figure. This allows ministers to say the overall deficit across the whole NHS is only £132 million.
However, the Tories claimed that health authorities have only been able to produce such a big surplus by slashing the amount they spend on crucial services, including training for doctors and nurses.
The figures were released as Miss Hewitt was accused of living on a "fantasy planet" after defending the proposals to overhaul services across the country.
She claimed the planned changes would allow more people to be treated closer to home by their family doctor or local health centre, rather than having to go into hospital.
"That will mean fewer emergency admissions, so you need fewer beds. Fewer beds are a sign of success — not a sign of failure," she said in a newspaper interview.
Miss Hewitt took up the theme during yesterday's presentation to the Cabinet. She argued that NHS reconfiguration was being driven by both patient demands and changing medical practices.
It was increasingly possible to treat more minor conditions in local health centres rather than the local hospital, she said. At the same time, specialist care for conditions such as heart disease were increasingly being concentrated in regional centres of excellence.
Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said Miss Hewitt's remarks would be greeted with incredulity at a time when many trusts were struggling to cope with huge deficits.
"The Health Secretary is living on a fantasy planet, far removed from the reality of the front line cuts that are having a daily adverse impact on NHS staff and patients," he said.
"Despite this year's savage job losses, bed cuts and service closures, the NHS organisations providing front-line care are no less in the red than they were last year."
The Patients Association said it did not see bed closures as a sign of success.
"What we hear about from patients is inappropriate discharges with patients being sent home too soon," said Katherine Murphy, a spokesman for the association.
"We heard from one patients due to be discharged on a Wednesday who was away from her bed for 50 minutes, the night before to take a bath. When she went back to the ward someone was in her bed.
"Beds are being closed because of financial deficits. I would not call this a mark of success," she said.
From:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/09/nhs09.xml
A split and indecisive labour government looks in the offing. The first two blogs that Health Direct posted at the beginning of this year look to encapsulate Labour’s dilemmas.
On Wed 3 Jan 07- in NHS hospitals told to delay operations to ease health service's debt underfunding Health Direct warned that the New Year has only just begun but it is clear that the next three months are not a good time to become ill as the NHS can not cope with Labour's underfunding of the health services as patients in some parts of the National Health Service are for the first time facing minimum waits to be seen and treated as managers attempt to balance their books. Suffolk, Hertfordshire, North Yorkshire and Kingston are all imposing various forms of minimum wait, with some primary care trust chiefs saying their organisations may follow suit as the NHS battles to recover from last year's £536m plus overspend.
On Tue 2 Jan 07 Health Direct noted that Labour leader defends hypocritical charges over NHS closures in her constituency - Cabinet minister Hazel Blears has defended her decision to take part in a protest over plans to close part of a hospital in her constituency. The proposals for Hope Hospital in Salford, Greater Manchester, are part of the controversial NHS shake up throughout the country.
Ms Blears, Labour chairwoman, said: "My first and foremost job is to represent Salford and the people of the area." It is very damaging for a minister to directly oppose labour government policy.
Labels: Hewitt, labour cutbacks, NHS closures
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