UK Government brings healthcare closer to home

The UK National Health Service (NHS) is justifiably seen as one of the best healthcare services in the world.

Its major hospitals can boast the latest, most sophisticated equipment and it is able to provide state-of-the-art treatment.

But while major hospitals are still the best places to have major treatment, the Government has recognised that they can be inconvenient and even intimidating for patients undergoing more minor procedures, so it is taking steps to move treatment closer to the community.

Our health, our care, our say

In January 2006 the Government published “Our health, our care, our say: a new direction for community services”, a white paper outlining its new strategy for the way health and social care should work together.

As Andy Burnham, a Minister of State for Health, explains, “We are rethinking the way the NHS provides care so that patients receive better, more convenient services.”

The paper outlines proposals to reform and improve community services, partly by introducing a new generation of community hospitals and facilities with strong ties to social care.

These changes are supported by research that shows that community hospitals provide a number of benefits.

One study, conducted in 2005 by Professor John Young of the University of Sheffield, showed that well-run community hospitals provide better recuperative care than district general hospitals.

New funding, new facilities

In July 2006 the Government set out its strategy for upgrading the community hospital service around the country.

At the same time it allocated £750 million to be spent over five years to improve the state of community hospitals and super-surgeries.

These new facilities will be able to offer much of the diagnostic, aftercare and even minor surgery that people currently have to go into hospital to receive.

It is partly due to advances in technology that these new, more local health centres can be built.

Procedures that could once only take place in hospital can be performed in the community and the Government is committed to bringing these technologies to the public.

The most advanced of these community hospitals will be able to offer complex surgery requiring general anaesthetic, and fully fledged accident and emergency services.

Projects underway

The first wave of funding was announced in December last year and work is already underway on around £50 million-worth of projects.

Almost the same amount was released in April this year for schemes in ten areas around the country.

The first projects include a new health centre in Ashfield village, Nottinghamshire, which will support Ashfield Community Hospital, and new facilities for x-ray and ultrasound at Barking Community Hospital, Essex.

Hilary Ayerst, chief executive of the Barking and Dagenham Primary Care Trust, says, “I am confident this is what local people want and deserve – local services provided from first-class premises.”