Government to overhaul ailing NHS LIFT programme

摘要

The government is to use the NHS' LIFT programme to deliver a new generation of community hospitals. Launching the government's white paper on the NHS this week, prime minister Tony Blair said investment in healthcare would shift away from large acute hospitals towards more local facilities, including a wave of 50 small community hospitals, each costing about ￡50m. Blair said: "'One-stop' services offered closer to home, longer GP opening hours and a greater emphasis on people looking after their own health lie at the heart of the government's proposals." The strategy could sound the death knell for large PFI hospital schemes because it requires cutting the ￡12bn PFI hospital programme to between ￡7bn and ￡9bn. Building understands that, to deliver the smaller-scale facilities, Whitehall is working on adapting its heavily criticised NHS LIFT programme.