A&E units in crisis ‘a wake-up call’ over NHS care

NHS Confederation chief executive Mike Farrar told its annual conference that delays facing patients in casualty units could lead to major financial problems.

His comments came as a coalition including the confederation, the Academy of Royal Colleges, and patient group National Voices warned that the NHS faced financial ruin and was no longer sustainable as it stood.

They said hospitals faced closure and unless the NHS faced up to the need for change it would descend into a “vicious spiral of poorly planned, reactive responses resulting in unsustainable demand”.

The alliance set out a series of recommendations to rescue the service, including a major transfer of services away from hospitals and into the community, an increase in the number of GP surgeries and health centres and greater investment in district nursing and social care.

The alliance claimed past experience of NHS changes meant the service risked being “paralysed” even though change was “essential for its successful future”.

In his speech to the conference in Liverpool, Mr Farrar said problems with emergency care risked having a knock-on impact which meant hospitals would get into financial difficulty.

“This is really the wake-up call of all wake-up calls in terms of action,” he said.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was yesterday urged to personally review all proposed A&E closures across England.

In a Commons debate, Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham said around 25 closures were being planned.

“If a clinical case can be made to support closure, evidence that lives can be saved, then we will not oppose those plans,” he said.

“But nor can we see proposals pushed through that have not given sufficient regard to the latest evidence and can show how extra pressure can be safely absorbed by neighbouring units.

“This is important as the public will rightly ask this simple question: ‘How can it make sense to close A&Es in the middle of an A&E crisis?’”

Mr Hunt criticised Labour proposals to ease pressures on A&E by transferring hundreds of millions in NHS underspending to prop up social care.

He said: “If we took away this money and put it into social care, we would have to take it away from hospitals where it is needed most to help tackle pressures in A&E and other places. About as logical as wanting to reduce debt by increasing the deficit.”

Meanwhile Health Minister Anna Soubry was forced to offer an embarrassing clarification yesterday after appearing to agree with comments from Thirsk and Malton MP Anne McIntosh about the “tremendous burden” on the NHS of training female doctors who work part time after having children. Ms Soubry appeared to accept her point about the “unintended consequences” of women training to be doctors.

But she was later forced to clarify her comments, saying that she “fully supports” female GPs and that her comments were “not intended to be derogatory”.

David Cameron’s official spokesman said the Prime Minister had full confidence in Ms Soubry. “I think the minister has explained the point she was seeking to make,” the spokesman said.