A THIRD of all A&Es across the country are set to close under the Tory government’s new Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs), causing the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) to voice its ‘extreme concern’.
President of the College Dr Tajek Hassan said: ‘These plans that are emerging via different routes, if true, are potentially catastrophic and will put lives at risk.
‘A number of systems around the country are already at breaking point and this will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for them. Others that previously were just coping will become unstable and unsafe.
‘The multitude of problems facing emergency departments – including the worst four hour performance for a decade, staffing shortages and overcrowding – will not be solved by closing units and removing beds. Patients will not simply disappear.
‘Nor is there any consistent successful track record of movement of such work into the community – in fact quite the reverse has occurred with a steady rise of Emergency Departments attendances in most systems.
‘If it is true that up to a third of Emergency Departments are planned for closure, based on attendances in 2015, where will over five million people go for emergency care and indeed who will provide that care?
‘The hospital bed base is already one of the lowest per head in the Western world and to reduce bed numbers and close more Emergency Departments will not only add to the pressure but undoubtedly compromise safety in those that remain open. On this basis STPs will certainly not create sustainability and any transformation that results will not be safe, effective or patient centred.’
The College also noted the serious concerns of the wider funding challenges most recently described by Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, Chair of the Health Select Committee. ‘On present information,’ the College adds, ‘the STPs are a further attempt to manage acute services with a level of funding that is deemed acceptable but not what is actually required.
‘We urge NHS England, NHS Improvement and the government to consider these issues carefully and engage with expert bodies such as the Royal Colleges to produce proposals for change driven with a focus on quality and not, as it seems, primarily by cost savings.’
