The New Hospitals We Need...

I heard on the radio that in the late 1980s with a population of 56 million there were 300,000 hospital beds. Now the population has grown to 69 million there are only 144,000 beds. Less than half for millions more people. During that time various governments closed down convalescent homes, cottage hospitals etc now wonder there is bed blocking and not enough new hospitals being built

Yes it would be great if they put loads more money into the NHS but they still need more staff and people are not attracted to go into nursing or medical school when the conditions are so bad

Until recently we lived near on of those outer London hospitals featured on this weeks news programmes. It has always been dire and residents were promised a new one, land was earmarked but, as usual, nothing happened. It was one of the main drivers as we got older for moving far away to another area. It is an awful hospital and I lived in fear of getting old and going into it.

knspol

Whatever happened to those emergency Covid hospitals? I wonder if nothing else they could be used as convalescent type places to help empty hospitals of so-called bed blockers - providing the staff can be found to operate them.

Not the staff - and I imagine many other costs? (Kitchens, emergency care back up, laundry? If the bed blockers are waiting for nursing homes a high level of care is required.

sundowngirl

I heard on the radio that in the late 1980s with a population of 56 million there were 300,000 hospital beds. Now the population has grown to 69 million there are only 144,000 beds. Less than half for millions more people. During that time various governments closed down convalescent homes, cottage hospitals etc now wonder there is bed blocking and not enough new hospitals being built

Cottage hospitals and convalescent homes were wonderful aides to the NHS.
I think we can blame both the Tories and Labour governments for the closures and running them down as well as the lack of enough new hospitals.People have been massively let down.

Back in the day there were NHS general hospitals, specialised hospitals, cottage hospitals, mental hospitals, geriatric hospitals and convalescent hospitals. Now that so many hospitals have been closed, no wonder we have bed blockers.

There are far too many people cut loose in the community, with a variety of mental health problems, who would have received specialised inpatient and outpatient care in the past.

Hospitals are no use without staff to man them.

I'm NW ....we have a wealth of hospitals within an easy drive to me....alder hey childrens hospital, clatterbridge cancer hospital, broad green heart and chest, wrightington orthopaedic hospital, Walton neurological hospital, Liverpool womens hospital , Liverpool dental hospital, Liverpool hospital of tropical medicine, St Paul's eye hospital...then 4
general hospitals......between me and my children and grandchildren we have used them all over the years ....absolute centres of excellence are the specialist ones .....if I lived in london I wouldn't get better care