Experts have prescribed sweeping changes to the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland which would lead to more people being treated at home or in local clinics rather than as hospital inpatients.
The group, led by cancer specialist Prof. David Kerr, urged NHS boards to do more to help patients with long-term illnesses manage their conditions at home or locally without going to hospital.
According to researchers:
Those needing respite care should be treated in the community, Kerr concluded. Patients should also spend less time in hospital, with a reduction in overnight stays for patients waiting for operations.
Kerr identified three areas driving the need for change: Scotland’s aging population, the growth in chronic disease and the growth in emergency hospital admission.
“Given the extraordinary pressures that we face it should be obvious that the status quo cannot be an option,” says Kerr. “The overwhelming majority of people’s health needs can and should be met locally.”
Source: Louise Gray, Home treatment plan in NHS revolution, Scotsman, May 26 2005; based upon, Astron, A National Framework for Service Change in the NHS in Scotland: Building a Health Service Fit for the Future, Scottish Executive, May 2005.
For text (subscription required) http://news.scotsman.com/health.cfm?id=574502005&20050526150600
For study text http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/924/0012112.pdf
For more on Health Systems of Other Countries http://www.ncpa.org/iss/hea/
FMF Policy Bulletin/ 07 June 2005
