NHS boss to block ‘unsafe’ bed closures

HOSPITAL bed closures must be halted, the head of NHS, Simon Stevens, has warned as he says slashing thousands of places to save money at a time when crowding is increasing is too risky.

NHS authorities are drawing up plans to save £22 billion. Draft proposals also include the closure or downgrading of up to 24 accident and emergency departments, 11 maternity units and 19 hospitals. But they were drawn up before the worst winter crisis in NHS history, with almost half of trusts declaring emergency warnings and record occupancy.

Today, Mr Stevens will tell a conference of NHS leaders: “More older patients inevitably means more emergency admissions, and the pressures on A&E are being compounded by the sharp rise in patients stuck in beds awaiting home care and care home places. So there can no longer be an automatic assumption that it’s OK to slash many thousands of hospital beds – unless and until there really are better alternatives.

“That’s why before major service changes are given the green light, they’ll now need to prove there are still going to be sufficient beds to provide safe, modern and efficient care locally.”

Any area that intends to cut significant numbers of beds will only be allowed to do so if it fulfils strict conditions, such as increasing community services, or introducing treatments that mean patients can be seen as day cases.

Senior doctors have warned that repeated bed cuts have left hospitals dangerously overcrowded. In just six years, 15,000 beds, equivalent to 24 hospitals, have been cut. The NHS has the third lowest number of beds per head of population in Europe, with 2.7 beds per 1,000 population, compared with an EU average of 5.2.

In recent weeks, two coroners have warned Mr Stevens that lives are being put at risk because of the refusal of hospitals to take patients, for want of intensive care beds.

The NHS is standing on a “burning platform” because its model is not fit, the most senior hospital inspector has warned. Prof Sir Mike Richards said radical changes were needed to improve hospital safety records – with four in five in need of improvement.