Public must accept reforms if NHS is to survive, warns hospitals chief

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

The public need to accept the closure of many hospital units and live healthier lives if they want the health service to survive, according to an NHS executive.

Hospitals will have to provide fewer services and beds if the NHS is to cope with growing demand caused by the ageing population, warns Mike Farrar, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals.

Health professionals must do more to keep people out of hospital and treat them in or near their homes, while politicians should back the urgent and far-reaching changes needed to keep the NHS sustainable rather than joining protest marches, he added.

"Fundamental change" in the way the health service treats patients would produce better care, better value for money and better health outcomes. But this would mean "concentrating specialist expertise in fewer sites to enable patients to have access to the best round-the-clock intensive care, not shutting down services to cut costs", said Farrar.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/dec/28/public-nhs-reforms-health-service

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Gee whiz, we've heard similar rhetoric back in the States about Social Security and Medicare, haven't we?

[blueclown]

1. Check to see if Mr. Farrar has any stock in insurance companies...

[limpyhobbler]

2. yeah it sounds exactly the same.

It's all part of the Global War on People

[Hissyspit]

3. Shock Doctrine

[Proletariatprincess]

4. keeping people out of hospitals is not a bad idea

"Health professionals must do more to keep people out of hospital and treat them in or near their homes...."
Treating people at home is much more effective in most cases that sending them to a hospital. Hospitals are for the convenience and profit of the medical system and not always for the patients. They are terrible places to try to recover.
Home care is also more respectful and dignified for the patient. The care giver can also observe the enviroment and living conditions and help to improve the quality of the patient's life.
Hospitals are cold places where the condition is more respected than the patient in most cases. It is also less cost effective than home care. Qualified nursing care is what most conditions require and that applies especially to children.

[JDPriestly]

5. This idea would work well in urban areas.

People can become sicker just because they are in an inpatient hospital.

Used to be that people laid in bed for longer periods of time after certain surgeries such as a Cesareans. Now people are urged to get up and walk as soon as possible. That is a good thing.