Senior staffs conference

摘要

Representatives of Britain's senior hospital doctors have overwhelmingly endorsed the motion that "the hospital service is failing its patients, is seriously underfunded, and is misusing existing resources on a discredited contracting system." Speaking at last week's senior medical staffs conference, Dr Bob Buckland, consultant anaesthetist in Winchester, said that in his 23 years as a consultant he had never before "found it so difficult to maintain the standards that I was brought up to believe in." The problems had started with NHS reforms and the internal market The transfer of money to primary care; the leaching of money to private practice; burgeoning demand; efficiency savings; and a management explosion had left the hospital service in poor shape. Equipment was not being replaced; beds, wards, and even hospitals were closing; operating lists were being dosed; and mixed sex wards were introduced in the name of economy. He cited one local hospital with 230 purchasers and another where a single specialty had 10 waiting lists depending on where the patients came from.