RCPE Press Release 12 September 2013
RCPE Comment on the Future Hospital Commission report
Commenting on the publication of the Future Hospital Commission report, Dr Neil Dewhurst, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE), said,
“Earlier this year the RCPE called for a major change in culture within the NHS following the publication of the Francis Report into the events in Mid Staffordshire and our belief that the NHS had lost its focus [1]. We are encouraged that the Future Hospital Commission, in publishing its report today, has echoed these sentiments, is seeking to place patients at the centre of care and to place greater value on compassion and patient experience” [2].
“While focussing primarily on the NHS in England, the report makes a number of substantive recommendations which have much relevance on a UK-wide basis. Central to this is the need to improve the level of care provided to patients in hospitals by improving the way in which medical services are co-ordinated and delivered across the hospital and, where feasible, extended into community settings”.
“The report is to be welcomed, in particular, for its aim to reduce unnecessary ward moves for patients and complements on-going work between the RCPE and the Scottish Government to address this problem in Scotland [3]. In recent months much political attention has focussed on pressures on A&E Departments throughout the UK . However, the report emphasises the “hidden” high level of urgent and unscheduled care which is provided in Acute Medical Admission Units and in Intensive Care. There is a need to co-ordinate this more effectively, alongside both A&E and more routine medical care, through a single Division of Medicine. Tackling the problems experienced in A&E in isolation may offer a tempting quick political fix, but will not address the wider underlying issues involved in providing unscheduled care”.
“We also strongly support the recommendations that –
“With more patient and professional organisations adding their voice, the case for cultural change within the NHS has never been greater, but will require political commitment, throughout the UK, to resource the service that patients need and doctors wish to deliver.”
ENDS
Contact Graeme McAlister on 0131-247-3693 or 07733-263453
Notes to Editors
[1] RCPE warns NHS has lost its focus & Mid Staffordshire deaths risk being repeated in any hospital, 26 February 2013
[2] ‘Future Hospital: Caring for medical patients, a report from the Future Hospital Commission to the Royal College of Physicians (of London)’, September 2013.
[3] Reducing ward moves, 14 December 2012
