17 February 2006
The NHS Confederation has called for a renewed focus on the treatment of chronic diseases after research revealed that repeated emergency hospital admissions cost the health service £2.3bn a year.
The report, by analysts Dr Foster, said hospitals admitted 1.1 million 'high-impact users' during 2003/04. These were patients admitted as emergencies more than three times in the year, many due to acute episodes of a long-term illness.
Without measures to prevent avoidable admissions, this could rise by 500,000 and cost an extra £1bn by 2028, the report said.
Last month's white paper on out-of-hospital care called for a shift of 5% of resources (around £2.5bn) from the acute hospital sector to the community over the next ten years.
Confederation chief executive Gill Morgan said the Dr Foster report illustrated the need to boost care outside hospitals. 'People with long-term conditions could be better treated outside hospital, at home or in the community and we hope that the white paper will signal better care for this important group of patients,' she added.
Dr Foster said a new joint venture with the NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre would help GPs identify patients most at risk.
Report author Hilary Rowell added that many admissions could be avoided if patients received the correct information and care at home.
'Not only will this relieve anxiety for their patients, but is something GPs will be keen to address, especially with the arrival of practice-based commissioning, where the financial burden of potentially unnecessary hospital admissions falls on their budgets,' she said.
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