‘British health service collapsing’
British Health Minister Norman Lamb has warned that the National Health Service (NHS) will collapse if action is not taken to get more elderly people out of hospitals.
Lamb insisted that the UK™s health and social care system is becoming œdysfunctional” and could œbuckle under the pressure” unless far-reaching changes are made to the way it performs.
The health minister™s warning comes amid increasing concern that Accident & Emergency (A&E) departments and ambulance services are failing to manage with the soaring number of patients forced to bare long waits.
Recently, one of Britain’s most senior A&E doctors said units had begun to feel like œwar zones” while the head of the NHS and social care watchdog said such services were œout of control”.
Lamb said the NHS and social care system was under a heavy strain due to Britain™s aging population as high numbers of the elderly are suffering complex and chronic conditions. He said that tackling such a situation was “the challenge of the 21st century”.
Furthermore, regulators have announced a review of the NHS funding system that currently means hospitals are paid to keep patients in hospital instead of discharging them to their homes or to care homes.
“The hospital gets paid for a patient arriving in hospital but there is no incentive for them to leave,” Lamb said.
BGH/MOL/HE
This article originally appeared on : Press TV
Source: http://rinf.com/alt-news/breaking-news/british-health-service-collapsing/33458/
