Public must accept reforms if NHS is to survive, warns hospitals chief [View all]
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
Gee whiz, we've heard similar rhetoric back in the States about Social Security and Medicare, haven't we?
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