The prime minister’s emergency NHS summit: more symbolic than meaningful? (BMJ, 9 December 2022)

Summary

This BMJ Opinion piece is written by Chris Ham (in a personal capacity)who was chief executive of The King’s Fund from 2010 to 2018.

Chris talks about the recent funding announcement to support hospital discharges in order to free up bed space. He highlights a number of key considerations including:

• the impact on patient involvement in their discharge decisions
• staff shortages in care homes
• bed capacity in care homes.

Chris questions whether these decisions are 'symbolic policy making' or whether they will actually make a difference to patients.