{UK} NHS ‘could save BP$15bn’ treating more patients at home.
[Jose's Note]
The idea of providing care at home has a lot of merit.
“The current system, focused on reactive and emergency treatment, mainly in hospitals, has changed little since the NHS was established in 1948, he said…” The same could be said for the US system.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/feb/03/nhs-home-treatment-care
NHS ‘could save BP$15bn’ treating more patients at home.
CBI report fuels debate about what role hospitals would have if community services were significantly expanded
* Denis Campbell, health correspondent
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 3 February 2010 13.10 GMT
Is it time for the NHS to offer more treatment at home? Photograph: Ian Waldie/Getty Images
The NHS could save BP$15bn by treating far more patients at home and in new high street walk-in centres, according to a new report {http://www.cbi.org.uk/ndbs/Press.nsf/38e2a44440c22db6802567300067301b/f2aa76202344d1a880257650005a50e7/$FILE/CBI-Doing%20More%20With%20Less.pdf} from the CBI [Confederation of British Industry (CBI)].
Too much medical care is delivered in hospitals because there are not enough alternatives in the community, says the business group, which is urging a rapid expansion of “smarter care”.
Controversially, the report recommends that private companies should be allowed to provide the new services and that the NHS should not necessarily have a monopoly on delivering care in such ways.
It will also add to the growing pressure for the NHS to deliver much more care in patients’ homes – a demand backed by two other reports today – and will fuel the debate about what role hospitals would have if community services were significantly expanded.
“At present resources are skewed in favour of hospital care, but there is considerable scope for treating more people at home, near their workplace or the high street,” said John Cridland, the CBI’s deputy director-general.
“By re-engineering health services to give people more choice about how and where they are treated, we could diagnose problems earlier and reduce the number of costly hospital admissions.”
The NHS will have to rethink how it operates in order to cope with major problems – such as the ageing population, increasing medical problems associated with obesity and alcohol abuse, and the growing number of people with long-term conditions such as diabetes – at a time when its budget is being squeezed, added Cridland.
The current system, focused on reactive and emergency treatment, mainly in hospitals, has changed little since the NHS was established in 1948, he said. But its future will see it building on existing partnerships between the NHS and independent sectors in areas such as hip operations and the running of walk-in centres.
“If the examples of good practice contained in this report were applied more widely, we estimate that around BP$15bn could be saved by 2015,” said Cridland.
“But for that to happen the government must allow the best provider to deliver health services, irrespective of whether they are from the NHS, private or voluntary sectors.”
A separate report out today, by healthcare information analysts Dr Foster Intelligence and Healthcare at Home {http://www.drfosterintelligence.co.uk/index.asp}, estimates that the NHS could save up to BP$1.2bn a year by delivering in patients’ homes more chemotherapy, end-of-life care and treatment for long-term conditions.
In addition, a third paper, from the Expert Patient Programme Community Interest Company {http://www.expertpatients.co.uk/}, says that greater use of self-management techniques by the 15.4 million people with long-term conditions could save BP$1,800 on each patient each year in care costs.
The Department of Health said that NHS services were already being delivered in these ways. A spokeswoman said: “[There is] an impressive track record in the NHS for putting more services into communities, tailoring care to people’s individual needs and giving patients more choice.
“We have more early-intervention mental health teams operating in communities, there is increasing use of telecare for older people and we have invested in new GP services to improve access to primary care.”
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