BMJ  2006;333:1271 (16 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.39058.720150.3A

Letters

Reconfiguring acute hospitals in England

Try reconfiguring services to improve standards and meet patient preferences

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

Reconfiguration of services in Hexham has come with the replacement of the Nissen hut hospital with a private finance initiative development.¹ This, taken with the linking of services in Hexham with the hospital in Wansbeck, has resulted in some strange effects even if the objective standard of care has risen.

Patients fracturing their neck of femur in the Hexham catchment area will be taken initially to Hexham for diagnosis and stabilisation—this might entail an ambulance journey of up to 50 miles (80 km). Then they will be transferred to Wansbeck, another 50 mile journey, for operation--they are now 100 miles from home. On this second journey they drive past an even larger centre of excellence, Newcastle, which is a mere 30 miles from Hexham.

An audit that I conducted recently on patients in my practice who had had a baby within the last year revealed that 100% of them wanted . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ Haydon and Allen Valleys Medical Practice, Hexham, Northumberland NE47 6LA doctor.ford@virgin.net

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