3:43pm Friday 3rd September 2010
REDUCING the number of beds at Accrington Victoria Hospital is a ‘clear option’, according to health bosses.
The comments were made by Steve Spoerry, chief executive of East Lancashire Primary Care Trust, in a talk about NHS cost-cutting. Mr Spoerry told councillors NHS trusts had to make ‘significant’ savings.
The report of his presentation to Lancashire County Council’s health steering group says: “A clear option could be, if we reduce bed numbers, peripheral sites (Accrington Victoria etc).”
Bosses could save the equivalent of four wards in East Lancashire alone if discharge rates were improved, he added.
Other long-term options include better co-operation between hospitals, including whether they each need specialist departments, and more ‘tightly-defined thresholds’ set for treatment.
Primary Care Trusts are to be abolished under the government’s NHS reforms, with most of their powers given to GP consortia.
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