How best to organise acute hospital services?

doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7307.245

BMJ 2001;323:245-246 ( 4 August )

Editorials

How best to organise acute hospital services?

Think completely differently

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The Royal College of Physicians and the NHS Confederation have announced a working group to rethink the delivery of acuteemergency services in hospitals. It is, says their press release,"one of the biggest problems faced by the NHS." And, says GeorgeAlberti, college president: "We need completely new thinking tosolve the problem $---$ not just refinements of the presentsystem."

The current arrangement of acute hospital services in Britain becomes ever less efficient and more dangerous. Yet the politicalcost of reorganisation is rising. The government lost a safe parliamentaryseat in Wyre Forest because of its plans to close KidderminsterHospital.¹ A current minister, Yvette Cooper, faces potentiallythe same problem in her constituency. So the time has clearlycome to think differently, and a recent meeting in Cambridge ofthe Eastern Region of the NHS on acute services heard a radicalproposal to reverse current thinking. Instead . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Articles

Rise and demise of the hospital: a reappraisal of nursing: Nick Black
BMJ 2005 331: 1394-1396. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

How best to organise acute hospital services?: Brian Harrison, David Ralphs, Victor Patterson, Richard T Taylor, and Brian McCloskey
BMJ 2001 323: 1305. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Black, N. (2005). Rise and demise of the hospital: a reappraisal of nursing. BMJ 331: 1394-1396 [Full text]
Fulop, N., Protopsaltis, G., Hutchings, A., King, A., Allen, P., Normand, C., Walters, R. (2002). Process and impact of mergers of NHS trusts: multicentre case study and management cost analysis. BMJ 325: 246-246 [Abstract] [Full text]
Harrison, B., Ralphs, D., Patterson, V., Taylor, R. T, McCloskey, B. (2001). How best to organise acute hospital services?. BMJ 323: 1305-1305 [Full text]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Similar need in Singapore: Victor Ong Yeok Kein
bmj.com, 4 Aug 2001 [Full text]
Planning acute services should be apolitical.: Adrian Fogarty
bmj.com, 5 Aug 2001 [Full text]
Benefits of local hospitals: Malcolm Perkin
bmj.com, 5 Aug 2001 [Full text]
The Solution is in Flow: Paul Zollinger-Read
bmj.com, 5 Aug 2001 [Full text]
Is common sense about to prevail?: Mark W Savage
bmj.com, 6 Aug 2001 [Full text]
Alternative model for acute hospital services: Richard T Taylor
bmj.com, 7 Aug 2001 [Full text]
Alternative Health Delivery Systems: Livia Martin
bmj.com, 8 Aug 2001 [Full text]
Yes, but who is going to staff them?: Yoav Tzabar
bmj.com, 8 Aug 2001 [Full text]
Radical thinking already exists in Kidderminster: Brian McCloskey
bmj.com, 10 Aug 2001 [Full text]
services not hospitals: Paddy Quail
bmj.com, 11 Aug 2001 [Full text]
Organisation of acute hospital services mandatory for appropriate surgical training: B M Shrestha
bmj.com, 13 Aug 2001 [Full text]
The sound of distrant drums may be misleading: David Ben-Tovim
bmj.com, 22 Aug 2001 [Full text]
Real-time Teleneurology helps Small Hospitals: Victor Patterson
bmj.com, 2 Sep 2001 [Full text]
'Expert diagnoses' for the majority and 'expert management' for the few: Michael A James
bmj.com, 3 Sep 2001 [Full text]
HOW BEST TO ORGANISE ACUTE HOSPITAL SERVICES: J G Temple
bmj.com, 12 Sep 2001 [Full text]