Treat patients and carers as grown-ups
Too many people are admitted to hospital unnecessarily, stay too long and have a poor experience
Sir, Various experts are calling for hospital closures and a shift of NHS funding into primary and community settings. It is time for patients and carers to have a say. National Voices is a coalition of national voluntary organisations advocating for patients, carers and service users. Our members expect a wave of service changes including hospital closures as the NHS scrabbles to find some £20 billion of savings. This need not be a bad thing.
Too many people are admitted to hospital unnecessarily, stay too long and have a poor experience. Better care planning for the 17 million people with long-term conditions would keep more people out of hospital, in better health and at less cost to the taxpayer. Not all hospital care is good enough, safe enough, or in the right place. It does not follow that every hospital closure will be justified. Cutting costs risks cutting corners.
It’s our NHS: local citizens must have a genuine say in local schemes. In much of the country this does not happen. Too often people experience a tick-box “consultation” on what is really a fait accompli. We demand a different approach, which treats people as grown-ups. Managers must do their homework and present schemes that will improve quality and safety. People must be informed and involved from the outset, and shape the outcome.
They must have a say in the new services that replace the old. They need sufficient reassurance on matters of concern. Above all, local leadership is required. If there is a medical case for change, let’s hear the doctors making it. And local politicians need to be responsible. “Save our local hospital” is the line of least resistance and not always the right one.
Letter from the National Voices coalition to The Times, 26th March 2010. To view the original article, click here.
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