NHS Cash Crisis Means One in Three Hospitals May Shut Wards

ONE in three hospitals may have to shut wards because of a cash crisis gripping the NHS, doctors’ leaders warned yesterday.

Three-quarters of health organisations are facing a funding shortfall and a third plan to cut services to claw back money, according to a survey.

The British Medical Association said managers ‘running frightened for their jobs’ are making knee-jerk decisions and this poses a ‘significant threat’ to patient care.

It accused ministers of being in denial about the problem, which it blamed on a lack of ‘joined-up thinking’ by the Government.

The BMA also attacked the policy of giving work to private companies while NHS facilities lie idle, calling it ‘financial madness’.

The warnings were echoed by opposition MPs who said that hospitals were at crisis point because ministers had lost control of costs.

Spending on the NHS has soared since Labour came to power, from Pounds 33billion in 1997 to Pounds 67billion this year. Despite this, trusts managed to accumulate Pounds 366million worth of debts in 2004.

Now a BMA survey of 120 acute hospitals and primary care trusts shows three-quarters expect to face a funding shortfall in the current financial year.

Most expect debts of around Pounds 6.2million but some organisations predict they could be Pounds 25million in the red.

A third of the medical directors surveyed said their trusts planned to reduce costs by cutting services including shutting beds, closing wards and making staff redundant.

Almost half intended to freeze recruitment. In 47 per cent of these cases this would include medical staff.

One in seven also revealed that they expect to make medical staff redundant to save money.

Dr Paul Miller, chairman of the BMA consultants committee, said: ‘ Something is going terribly wrong when patients pay the price for these financial problems and the Government’s lack of joined-up thinking.’

Health Minister Rosie Winterton said: ‘ We recognise that some ‘Patients pay the price’ organisations are not managing their funding as well as they should. As reforms start to bed in, we will see improvements in financial management.’ She added that private companies providing NHS care are paid less than the equivalent NHS cost.

Intensive care units would be overwhelmed by a major flu epidemic, a study claims.

Researchers for the Intensive Care Society looked at the impact on hospital admissions, intensive care and level 3 beds, which have mechanical breathing aids.

They concluded a mild outbreak would overwhelm critical care capacity and demand for level 3 beds would exceed availability by 230 per cent.

The society said the Department of Health’s Influenza Pandemic Contingency Plan, published earlier this year, had not taken the impact on critical care services into account.

But Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said: ‘We have purchased 14.6million courses of anti-virals enough to treat the 25 per cent of the population we anticipate would be affected in a flu pandemic.’