The Anonymous Widower

The Other Side Of Healthcare

According to reports like this, the new boss of the NHS is going to create more smaller community hospitals. Here’s the first few paragraphs

Smaller community hospitals should play a bigger role especially in the care of older patients, the new head of the NHS in England has said.

In an interview in the Daily Telegraph, Simon Stevens signalled a marked change in policy by calling for a shift away from big centralised hospitals.

The health service chief executive said there needed to be new models of care built around smaller local hospitals.

I think there is something, which is just as important, that he doesn’t seem to mention.

That is that all hospitals should be easy to access from most of their catchment area.

When I lived in Suffolk, the only way to get to the excellent local hospital at Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge, was either by a private car or taxi. It certainly couldn’t be done by public transport.

Where I live now, I only have to walk round the corner about fifty metres and every ten or fifteen minutes, there is a 30 bus direct to University College Hospital. The other local hospitals; Royal London, Barts and Homerton are also easy by public transport. I could even get the 30 bus to Harley Street for a private consultation.

But not everybody is so lucky and many hospitals are downright difficult or even impossible to access by public transport. Two hospitals in Suffolk; Ipswich and Bury \St. Edmunds come to mind.

Fixing this problem, will not only help patients, but make it easier for visitors without their own private transport to get to the hospitals.

Hopefully good public transport to hospitals, may also ease parking problems for staff and visitors and hopefully cut down the number of patients who miss their appointments.

May 30, 2014 - Posted by AnonW | Health, Transport/Travel | Driving, Hospitals, NHS, Suffolk