02.07.13
Emergency care funding model ‘wrong’ – FTN
NHS hospitals could be losing up to £500m each year due to the failed approach to funding emergency care, the Foundation Trust Network (FTN) has warned.
Emergency admissions have increased in 75% of NHS hospitals over the past three years, but hospitals have only been paid for 30% of this increase. The money saved from this approach was intended to be invested in other services to prevent more people being admitted to hospital, but the FTN report suggests this has not happened.
It calls for Monitor’s review of the marginal tariff to look at better ways of reducing admissions without penalising hospitals.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of the FTN said: “The growing crisis in emergency admissions is bad for patients and bad for hospitals. Many people coming to hospital currently have nowhere else to go but, with the right investment, could be treated earlier and closer to home.
“There has been no national NHS grip of a growing problem and that’s reflected in the way emergency care is funded. Paying hospitals only 30% of the cost of treating many A&E patients is wrong. The rest of that money was meant to be spent on alternatives to A&E, but that never happened in most cases either. The result is the growing A&E crisis we saw last winter.
“We all understand the intention of the policy – to prevent hospital admissions by investing in care closer to home. But it’s simply not working at either end. We need change now. How long can the NHS continue to fly in the face of the evidence and stick with a broken policy?
“Hospitals simply can’t go on treating a rapidly growing number of patients for 30% of the cost of doing so. Many have had to re-open wards and employ more nurses to cope with growing demand – these costs must be paid in full. What other organisation would be expected to provide up to £500m of services for free?”
But Dr Michael Dixon, interim president of the NHS Clinical Commissioners, said: “The money the hospital didn't get was used in other priorities and not misspent. It's gone into all other things that clinical commissioning groups do in primary care and in health.”
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