PUBLIC sector union Unison yesterday condemned former NHS Chief Executive from 2000-2006, Nigel Crisp’s call to close or merge hospitals.
Now Lord Crisp, he told the BBC that ‘the challenge’ is ‘dealing with the numbers of older people and those with long-term conditions. They need supporting in the community.
‘That means a shift away from hospitals. There will be less need for large hospital outpatient departments and some services and whole hospitals will need to close or be merged with others.’
Referring to his stewardship in the Blair years, he added: ‘By 2005 there was no hospital that was not thinking it was going to grow. We had major problems with very bad facilities; perhaps we could have built smaller or consolidated on fewer sites.
‘We missed that opportunity and this government needs to grasp that. We can’t keep services going just because there is a nice building.’
A Unison spokeswoman told News Line yesterday: ‘There is a lot of pressure to move care into the community for the elderly and long-term conditions.
‘But you can’t do that until that care is in place.
‘Councils are having their budgets cut and the elderly are not getting the care they need.
‘Councils are raising the bar for people even to get any care.
‘Talk of closing hospitals now is irresponsible.
‘Crisp was also talking about closing baby units.
‘Babies are at risk. You cannot tell parents there is no place to take their sick infants.’
Attacking government cuts, she added: ‘There’s a whole load of child heart surgeries under threat.
‘These units save lives. Lives should be put before money.
‘We pay our taxes to get the care we need free at the point of use.
‘Unison does fight hospital closures. We are holding our big weekend against the Health and Social Care Bill.
‘If that goes through, it will be the end of the NHS as we know it.’
Lord Crisp told the Daily Telegraph: ‘What we’ve got at the moment is an inefficient infrastructure that isn’t being used to its full capacity. You’ve got beds closed and people not working to their full capacity because there are too many sites.’
Suggesting there are too many consultants, he added: ‘In some ways we provide too many very highly trained people who then have to work below their capacity.
‘If you’re going to effect the cost base of the NHS you’re going to have to effect the staff costs, and some of that will be about changing the staff mix rather than just changing numbers – changing the staffing pyramid so there are more people at the base and not so many at the top.’
The British Medical Association had no comment.
