Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
FROM BED TO WORSE 1980S
NHS is 75,000 beds Total halved to just Ageing population short of Euro average 140,000 in past 30yrs means soaring demand
THE cash-starved NHS needs 75,000 more beds in England to catch up with a European average.
Drastic cuts to hospital bed numbers means we now have just 2.4 for every 1,000 people – compared with an average 3.7 beds across the original European Union nations.
Hospital beds including general and acute, mental illness, learning disability, maternity and dayonly have more than halved in the past 30 years, from around 300,000 to 140,000.
At the same time, the ageing population has grown and the number of patients being treated has rocketed.
TUC chief Frances O’grady said: “The NHS is one of the greatest achievements in British history.
“Without it, many of us would not be alive today.
“But budget restrictions have left it short of thousands of beds, doctors and healthcare staff. It’s on the critical list.” Bed shortages compared with our European neighbours mean there is, on average, a dearth of 139 beds in each Parliamentary constituency. The nations we were measured against are the other 14 EU member states as of December 2003, before nations from Eastern Europe joined – Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
On Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s watch, the NHS has suffered an unprecedented financial squeeze, with annual funding increases of just over 1%, falling well below its historic average of 4%.
And Prime Minister Theresa May’s pledge of £3billion falls short of what independent experts say is needed to reverse a decade of decline. Unions and campaigners will march on Downing Street on Saturday to mark the NHS’S 70th birthday and call for action.
Paul Evans, director of the NHS Support Federation, said: “Improving healthcare starts with having enough staff and equipment, backed by the funding to make treatments widely available.
“The price of austerity is the NHS now has a lot of catching up to do to raise capacity to the levels needed.”
Ms O’grady added: “The best medicine for the NHS is the extra funding it needs. But the Government is giving it too small a dose to bring it up to full health. By joining the demo on Saturday, you can help send a message that the NHS needs a better funding deal for the coming years.”
A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “These claims fail to take into account that other countries include different types of beds in figures, such as nursing home or private sector.”