14 January 2005
Fast-track surgery centres are threatening the existence of neighbouring NHS hospitals, the British Medical Association said this week.
The claim came as Health Secretary John Reid said both NHS and private sector diagnosis and treatment centres saw patients up to eight times more quickly than traditional hospitals.
Laying the groundwork for an expansion of the treatment centre programme, Reid said it had contributed to the fall in waiting lists by treating more than 120,000 patients since the initiative was launched in August 2002. Between April 2003 and November 2004, waiting lists in England fell by around 150,000.
Reid singled out mobile cataract units for praise. These perform 37 cataract operations per day, six days a week, while standard NHS providers perform five. Treatment centres can achieve this high rate as they concentrate on a single procedure in a modern, purpose-built unit.
'Treatment centres play an important role in speeding up access to treatment for patients and improving quality of care and patients' experience,' Reid said.
However, BMA consultants' leader Paul Miller said the equipment in traditional NHS hospitals was idle. This could threaten the viability of some trusts.
'We have heard of MRI scanners in NHS hospitals sitting unused while patients are scanned in mobile units in car parks outside. Hospitals will not be able to survive in a system of payment by results if workload is taken away,' he said.
'If an emergency happens at three in the morning, patients go to NHS hospitals, not treatment centres. If hospitals close, where will they go?'
PFjan2005
