08.04.13
Dixon proposes 50% cut in hospital services
Half of all hospital services should be delivered in community settings closer to patients’ homes, the chair of the NHS Alliance has stated.
Dr Michael Dixon, a GP and a member of NHE’s editorial board, said this could cut “an awful lot of fat” from the NHS budget, and make care more patient-friendly.
He admitted that such a move would be politically difficult, but suggested that it was necessary, particularly in the case of elderly patients.
Dr Dixon told the Guardian: “A very large amount of what's currently done in hospitals could or should be done elsewhere. I think 50%. The implications are that hospitals would need to downsize and become places where you go if you are very ill or need very specialist care and not places where you go for more generalist care or where you can be looked after in the community.”
NHS Confederation chief executive Mike Farrar agreed that public attitude to hospitals needed to change and said: “We need to explain to people that there are better ways in which we can care for people and that the aim should be to keep people living independently out of hospitals for longer. But to do that we need to take some of the money that goes into hospitals and put it into primary care and community care services instead.”
But a BMA spokesman said that taking “an arbitrarily defined chunk of services away from hospitals would threaten their financial stability” and added that the answer was instead a rational, long-term approach to service planning.
A spokesman for NHS England said: “There is no doubt that delivering the best possible care for patients at a time of economic austerity is going to be very challenging and that we need to adapt the way that services are delivered in order to provide the best possible to today's patients.
“It is really important that there is a full debate about these issues. It is also really important that our new GP commissioners are ready to lead this debate with us. We need them to help the NHS face its strategic challenges and the difficult decisions that will in some cases be involved. We therefore welcome Dr Michael Dixon's contribution to the debate.”
Tell us what you think – have your say below, or email us directly at [email protected]