Experts blast NHS for lack of consultation over hospital bed closures

Full story in The Sentinel, 27 December 2018

Government advisors have blasted NHS bosses for their ‘reactive, incomplete and ill-focused’ approach to closing community hospital beds.

Councillors referred Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire clinical commissioning groups’ ‘My Care, My Way – Home First’ proposals to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt in January after raising concerns over the lack of consultation. The Independent Reconfiguration Panel, an expert body which advises the Government on NHS service change, has now published a damning report on the way the CCGs have approached the programme.