Hundreds of thousands of elderly people are losing their “dignity” because they are being unnecessarily admitted to hospital, the Health Minister warns today.
In an article for The Daily Telegraph, Dr Dan Poulter says that up to a third of elderly hospital patients should be cared for at home.
He insists, ahead of today’s introduction of controversial NHS reforms, that putting doctors in charge of budgets will lead pensioners to be admitted to hospital.
He says that unnecessary hospital admissions are caused because frail, elderly people, often with long-term conditions, are not treated or cared for in the community for financial reasons. Their conditions deteriorate and emergency hospital care becomes necessary.
The Health Minister believes that when doctors are in charge of patient care, they will help pensioners sooner to prevent the need for later, more expensive treatment.
Dr Poulter, who still also practises as a hospital doctor, says that he has experienced how the target culture of the NHS has threatened patient care.
In today’s article, he suggests that pensioners are the biggest losers in the current system and that urgent changes are now necessary.
“How we better deliver care to people with long term illnesses and disabilities is the big challenge facing our NHS, and there is growing evidence that up to a third of older patients currently in our hospitals do not need to be there.”
From today, GPs will be charged with commissioning treatment for their patients throughout the NHS.
Dr Poulter says that most patients will not notice any difference in “front-line services”, but that having medical experts in charge of financial decisions will ultimately drive up standards.
“Clinicians understand the needs of patients much better than some managers have in the past,” he says.
However, ministers are braced for a wave of opposition to the reforms, amid claims from Labour that it is “commercialising” the health service – as GPs can send patients for private treatment.
Andy Burnham, the shadow Health Secretary, said last night that he would not repeal the overall structure of the new NHS if Labour is elected in 2015. But he added: “David Cameron has placed the National Health Service on a fast-track to fragmentation and privatisation.”
Labour warned that handing over public health to local authorities, another part of the reforms, could be “a car crash”.
Shadow public health minister Diane Abbott said: “The Government only announced the public health financial allocations a few weeks ago. This was far too late, and the distribution has been blatantly unfair.”
Source: telegraph.co.uk
