Is the NHS’s urgent and emergency care plan delivering what patients need?

More beds, not “virtual beds” The continued failure to increase capacity and reduce both average length of hospital stay and bed occupancy is deeply troubling as we head into late summer and look ahead to autumn and winter. There is a danger that virtual ward “bed counting” to meet targets (>10 0...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMJ (Online) 2023-08, Vol.382, p.p1806-1806
Main Authors: Higginson, Ian, Cooksley, Tim, Dean, John, Clarke, Sarah, Boyle, Adrian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accountability
Departments
Emergency medical care
Health care access
Health disparities
Hospitals
Length of stay
Medicine
Mental health
Opinion
Patients
Society
Workforce
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Summary:More beds, not “virtual beds” The continued failure to increase capacity and reduce both average length of hospital stay and bed occupancy is deeply troubling as we head into late summer and look ahead to autumn and winter. There is a danger that virtual ward “bed counting” to meet targets (>10 000) will result in overtreatment or monitoring of patients who do not need acute hospital beds. For our colleagues, proactively including mental health and social care services in multi-disciplinary hospital teams will help reduce patients’ average length of hospital stay. [...]we need the prevention of ill health and reducing health inequalities to sit at the heart of any government’s programme.
ISSN:1756-1833
1756-1833
DOI:10.1136/bmj.p1806