Is our CCG crazy when it tries to cut community hospital beds? It would seem so from the report quoted below. So why is it happening? Because the NHS is underfunded and not overspent but our CCG is too lily-livered to say so. Or too well-recompensed for the cuts.
Please don’t go down the “immigrants taking our beds” route! Immigrants in the NHS are fighting this battle with us and for us as front-line staff, and no-one is saying that Hinkley C is being built to keep immigrant lights on!
Our NHS is being destroyed under our noses.
“… The increase in attendances in the last 5 years is equivalent to the workload of 10 medium sized departments in England alone–none of which have been built. Moreover, during the last 5 years the number of beds available for admission of acutely ill and injured patients has continued to fall and we now have the lowest number of beds per capita in Europe and England has the lowest number within the UK.” …
“… This is the figure recorded at midnight—daytime occupancy rates frequently exceed 100% in many hospitals. Such occupancy levels mean there is no surge capacity, rendering hospitals hostage to fortune.” …
… “Whilst increasing bed capacity is not regarded as a viable option by the Nuffield Trust, their evidence identified further utilisation of capacity within the community as being a mechanism for easing pressure in acute trusts. They said that “investment in new rehabilitative ‘step-down’ beds, where patients can recover outside hospital, could deliver substantial gains”. It was therefore encouraging that the Minister said in evidence that as part of the process of developing sustainability and transformation plans:
“we will see the whole healthcare economy players look to develop a more integrated pathway and rehabilitation beds. Intermediate care beds, I am sure, will form part of that”.
During the seminar we held with national policy experts the point was made that there is often an emphasis on community rehabilitation beds to enable discharge from acute hospital. There is, however, less attention paid to the ‘step-up’ element of community provision which can prevent emergency attendance and admission. …”
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmhealth/277/27706.htm#_idTextAnchor027
East Devon Watch 
Our CCG is run by accountants appointed by central government with clear cut orders to balance the books regardless of the consequences. But of course in this day and age we have to use 1984 DoubleSpeak to hide their real purpose – so we call these people a “Success Regime”.
Of course the criteria for success is making the cuts necessary to balance the budget – not what most people might consider a successful NHS i.e. successfully treating patients so that they don’t die and don’t have to wait umpteen months for treatment.
As an example, the current proposals for cutting community beds are based on “successful” pilot schemes in N Devon for community care in people’s homes. And if you read the reports used to justify this you will find that “success” is stated as being good administration of appointments and not successful treatment as you might imagine. Indeed there is no evidence to show that community care treatment is as effective or safe as current hospital treatment,
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