Hospital reconfigurations ‘negatively impacting’ patients, warn government advisers

Clinical service reconfigurations are mostly driven by the “poor condition of [the] NHS estate” and a lack of staff rather than a desire to “improve clinical outcomes”, advisers to the Department of Health and Social Care have said.

The Independent Reconfiguration Panel, which advises ministers on large-scale changes to clinical services, today published its evidence to the Darzi review of NHS performance.

IRP chair Sir Norman Williams said the panel had “seen a shift to centralisation within the NHS justified as a clinical necessity and a means of resolving staffing issues, even when it presents a risk to access for patients and may negatively impact the patient experience, often with regards to travel, transport, and ambulance conveyance times.”

The former Royal College of Surgeons president said the NHS had got better at involving patients and use “clinical senates”, but warned: “In recent times, the IRP has observed that rather than service change being driven by an ambition to improve clinical outcomes, the trend has often been for reconfigurations to emerge from operational necessity such as a lack of NHS staffing to sustain services, as well as the poor condition of NHS estates, an issue particularly seen with community hospitals.”

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Source: HSJ, 3 September 2024